Plato: "The beginning is the most important part of the work".

I am a suburban wife and mother, so this is a pretty huge step for me.  I live in an area where the health food shops are places you get your vitamins and that's about it.  My friends/family already think I'm a huge hippy because my children aren't eating preservatives, colours, artificial flavours of the bad kind "Your poor kids miss out on so much!" I get told regularly - and we don't eat such rubbish as Maccas and KFC, or hot chips etc.  That's pretty extreme around the social circles I'm involved with, kids eat junk food regularly, I have a Mcdonalds a couple of hundred metres away from where I live. So to move on to this phase of raw is a HUGE step, but desperate times call for desperate measures!  My health has suffered for years.  But this takes me out of my comfort zone and into another place - although that can be good in life, it's a bit scary!

DAY 1
7.30 smoothie with apple juice (fresh) berries and banana
11.00 handful of raw nuts and strawberries
12.30 huge salad with rocket, baby spinach, olives, tomatoes, cucumber, avocado and a dressing of fresh lime and lemon juice
3.00 a fresh apple, carrot and celery juice
5.00 handful of pepitas
6.30 dinner with a salad salsa served in avocado with a side salad
7.00 a plum

Got through the day.  It became hard about 4pm when I was preparing the family's dinner.  Felt restless at that stage, rather than hungry.  But the rest of the day I felt great, and didn't really struggle at all.  I think I am finally learning to listen to my body, rather than get tricked by my mind! (hope that makes sense).

DAY 2
Woke up a bit achy, but nowhere near as stiff as I have been.  Normally I shuffled all hunched over first thing in the morning because I'm so stiff and sore.  Can hardly move my back and my legs.  Today, got straight up and walked straight and tall. Is that possible in one day? Gave me the excitement to power on through another day.
7.30 smoothie same as yesterday
10.30 handful of mixed raw nuts
And now as I'm sitting here writing this, I am preparing my salad in my mind for lunch!

I have ordered some cookbooks and books, I think I need that next.  My body is really craving certain things at the moment, like rocket, can't get enough rocket, or berries.  Must be nutrients in them that I really need.  Whilst my body is busy craving them, at least it's not craving other things.  I've been waiting for the detox headaches and illness to appear, but it hasn't yet.  I'm sure it's just around the corner......although I had been eating really well leading up to this, so maybe I've partly detoxed already. 

I read a part on the raw chat about the green smoothies and everyone's different way of making them.  As I was reading that I was literally craving one.  So this arvo I might make one.  My poor body must be so nutrient deficient at the moment. My hair's been falling out in huge handfuls, so hopefully it may stop soon enough.  Piers said in one link that I should make goals.  So that's what I'm doing.

My most important goal, MOST important, is to get well.  Let my body heal.  Don't know how long that will take, could be months, maybe longer.  I want to have energy again, instead of struggling to get through each day. For the last 3 years I've been just getting by, rather than enjoying it all.  So that's probably my biggest and most important goal.  Then there are other goals, like to lose weight, to improve my hair and my skin!  But these are secondary to the most important!

Day 2 halfway through and I feel good.  I think dinner time is going to be the hardest for me - the rest of the day is real sweet.  So now I'm thinking about some strategies on how to get through dinner easily.....my kids all like salad so I might make a "grab bowl" in the middle filled with salad pieces every night.  That way they can eat fresh salad with whatever they are having for dinner and it's there for me as well.  Might also make it a bit of fun (with four children and two adults, it really will be a "grab" bowl!!!).

Will keep you posted,

Kelly

Hi JLK,
Thanks for the post!  You know, you are so right, it's about getting ideas that we have been "taught" out of our head. 

I find dinner the hardest by far, because my mind is telling me that dinner should be a hot meal, and it should be filling.  But most nutritionists say it should be the lightest meal of the day, because that's when we are the least active.

So I think I'm going to break my cycle completely, and make dinner my lightest meal so it's not even really an issue for me. Tonight I might just have my big green smoothie and nibble from my "grab bowl" that I'm going to put out on the table.

The cucumber and cumin soup sounded great!  I also have to get it through my thick head that just because it's raw it doesn't have to be 'cold'.  I can settle things to room temperature and have them, ie raw soups, rather than having them freezing cold!

I am seriously thinking about the vegetable spiral machine, it looks great, and I think my kids would LOVE it, too!  Also, a dehydrator has never really been out of the question, as most dried fruit is preserved with sulphur dioxide.  However, my kids prefer fresh to dried, so we've never really needed one.  But I think I might put that on my agenda, too.

Anyway, thanks again.  It's so good to be encouraged and see that it is possible!!  It sounds as if you're well into your journey and enjoying it immensely!

Kell

JLK,

Talk about rubbing it in about your dinner.......

Can't wait till I'm more creative like that.  You've given me cooking inspiration.  Plus you've sold me on the equipment I need, if that's the food you're producing!

Enjoy your cauliflower couscous.  Yummo!!!!

Kell

Day 3, and I feel horrible.  The detox phase is catching me.  Felt great until this morning and I feel just awful.  My throat is sore, my head is aching and the skin on my hands are cracked and bleeding.  I feel as if the toxins are just busting to get out.  I'm miserable, tired, cranky and moody!!!  Anyway, I keep telling myself it will pass, in fact I feel so yucky I don't want to eat much, so I am relying on juices and smoothies today.

Had coffee this morning with a bunch of friends (pre-arranged, even though I felt lousy I still went) and it wasn't too bad.  They all sat eating huge pieces of cake with cream and icecream, drinking coffee! I was lucky enough it was a coffee shop that squeezed fresh juice, so I had a carrot, apple and celery juice.  They all looked at me a bit strange, and then laughed at me (in a nice way).  I think they're used to my "odd" ways.   It didn't bother me that I wasn't having the cake or the coffee.  The juice was great.  I did have a hot water as well, thought it might make my throat feel better. 

The "grab" plate I devised has been a HUGE success.  The kids want it every night.  I put a huge platter with pieces of vegies all over it, there were olives, tomatoes, sprouts, cucumber, capsicum etc in the middle of the table.  The kids just picked off it, or 'grabbed' - i had to tell them to slow down because I still needed some for dinner.  They ate from that before they ate their own meal.  It made me feel a bit more involved in the family meal too.  And I discovered how much my 3y/o boy loves alfalfa!  They all then passed around my green smoothie (green by name and ingredients, brown by colour) and all had some.  Then they were fighting over that.  I had to beg them to let me have some.  How funny is that!  So dinner last night was really good, and I had a moment where I thought "I could easily do this every night!".  I guess it's just about fine tuning situations to fit in with your life, and the 'grab plate' has been a huge winner, for me and for them!  My 6 y/o daughter even asked if the whole family could have what I was having for dinner one night (lettuce wraps with vegies off the 'grab plate').  That brought a huge smile to my face!!!

So now juicing is a bit of a hassle coz I have to make litres of the stuff for all the kids.  I am certainly not complaining, I am really lucky that my kids love fruit so much, but it makes it a bit more of a chore, and a bit more time consuming!  Still, it's fantastic!

My 3 y/o twins have both got really bad croupy coughs, really chesty.  My little boy twin has been in hospital heaps and heaps of times with bronchillitis and we were initially told that he'd end up asthmatic.  However, we changed all their diets a couple of years ago and that worked wonders.  But he's still a bit prone to it.  Besides green smoothies, can anyone recommend any blends of fruit / vegs that might really work wonders for them at the moment?  I'd prefer that to them ending up in hospital. Any suggestions would be fabulous!!!!  My little girl twin also was in hospital just over a week ago, she bounced off tonsillitis, to a really bad gastro, ended up in hospital, and has bounced straight back on to this croupy cough.  So, her immune system sounds as good as mine right now!  So any ideas would be brilliant!

Thanks for listening,
Kell