Howdy 

I've decided to start another journal....I think this is something like number 4, prior ones being my fitness challenge, 2 week mango island, fasting etc! I am finished my mega bike trip from Adelaide to Qld and I have learnt many valuable lessons from my experience.
Check out my blog at :
www.rawhealthconscious.blogspot.com

I realise the power in keeping a journal of high standards both for my own motivation & for others so here I am with my best recently refined rawlife success recipe yet...

*Find a mentor who is holding themselves to a higher standard than I am and take notes, its easy to lower my standards to mainstream expectations but it doesn't make me happy or inspire/help others.

*Everymorning on rising drink 1.5litres of filtered water (has been great for my skin & digestion...well everything really)

*Everyday (no exceptions) listen to or read at least 1/2hr of inspiring material.  Make it at a similar time each morning so I get into a routine.

*Help/contribute to others everyday at least 1/2hr either via forums/email/in person.

*Live a lowfat vegan lifestyle, only high water content fruits/GS in the AM, mono meals/GS throughout the day and heavier meals early in the night before 7pm and preferably on nightfall.

*LISTEN to my positive, productive intuitive inner voice, this served me well on my trip when the going got tough.

*Daily exercise (I mean breaking a sweat!) is a MUST at least 6 days a week and incorporating a rest day once a week.

*Currently developing the routine of 15mins of yoga & meditation everymorning after my waterfix followed by GreenSmoothie

*Spend time being grateful for my life and people in it, send blessings to everyone- my friends, family even people I feel tension around & thank God for the beautiful amazing life path I'm on.

*Nude sunbake as often as logistically possible There are glands on our body that never (but should) get exposed to the sun, any guesses to where they are? One is under our armpits.

*Always squat on the loo for proper elimination. I know I know you probably are squirming right now but hey we all go to the loo lets do it right!

*think about deleting the lesson above...;-P

*Aim for 4litres of water everyday.  There is a reason to maintain our brains hydration at 85% water.

*Nip apathetic behaviour in the butt by doing whatever needs to be done as soon as I don't feel like doing it, live in the moment.

So this is the list I will keeping coming back to, the standards I aim to achieve, fortunately most I am already doing but staying consistent can be challenging & there is always room to improve.

 

Modified only to change journal title as requested by Free

wow!!  This is Fantastic Freelea!!!

Thank you so much for sharing.  Your list has inspired me in many ways!  Thank you!  I am going to start by drinking more water first thing in the morning.

Wonderful!  Wonderful!  Wonderful!

Blessings!

as always, thanks for the inspiration FL xo

Yaaay Frealea!!!! I love your journals-so inspiring and such a gift to all of us. I'd love to know what inspiring material your reading/listening to.

Recently I gave mum a book to read which I'm sure a lot of you have read or heard of...
'The Mad Cowboy' about a former 20year cattle rancher turned vegan after his experience in the industry, a few years ago he was on Opera explaining the beef production process and basically just revealing the truth, consequently Opera got sued by the Beef industry for exposing the industry lies...
anyway after mum reading just a few chapters she is turning vegetarian! I am so proud of her because her boyfriend is a big meat eater but she seems really dedicated.  Actually she is just telling her friend about it on the phone now!Awesome.
My lesson out of this is...attaching pain to any limiting/disempowering belief is a powerful motivator to change.  Apparently people are more likely to change to avoid pain then to gain pleasure...interesting....I was helping her attach more pain by speaking about the torture animals have to endure unnecessarily in order to become many peoples meals.

In other news...
Just spent 10mins of visualising myself hugging everyone I know and sending love to everyone I don't.
Now I am just about to jump on my bike and do a few laps around the area, I have a few hills in mind to really get the lungs pumping.
Mum just put me on the phone to her friend to tell her about raw! She was telling me how meat doesn't seem to digest well and I told her how can it when our intestines are something like 6times the length of a carnivores?

I will be eating Frothy Green smoothies most of the day....

Hi Freelea I am really well thanks it was a fun day up in Dubbo next time I will bring a lot more persimmons ! That melon was so yummy. Flying ( or bike riding in your case )  good food and a good chat what a day ! Looking forwards to Grant's retreat this weekend. Thanks  for that truly inspiring ride ! Simon.

Hey Jen, yes we should talk more often! I will check out that link thanks a lot, seems like it will be right up my ally :-)

Hi Simon, well I would never say no to more persi's thats for sure! Im sure Grants retreat will be awesome too, I went last year and we had an absolute ball.

Hi Jimmy, thanks for sharing your experience with water and I must say it has me thinking.  I really feel like with the dehydrating unnatural environment that we are surrounded by (cooked food/car/industry fumes/perfumes/negative thinking/vibes etc) that drinking lots of water is important....but how much is the question? These days I gauge it mainly on the colour of my pee, if it is clear I know Im hydrated enough and without fail when I feel a little moody, flat or unusually tired my pee always seems to be yellow...

Since reducing your water intake have you found your pee isn't clear anymore?? Is that too personal ?;-P
Interesting what you said about overworking the kidneys, I know Doug reccomends about 8-12 clear pees per day, I would probably be peeing about 10-12 times and its not always clear unless I have had large quantities of water.  Sometimes having fruit and not enough water tends to dehydrate me.  Like you said activity plays a big part in the amount needed and also the environment, for eg in Adelaide where the atmosphere is very dry I seemed to need more water. The fact that our brains are 85% water and bodies upwards of 75% to me points at the importance of staying hydrated, I do get a lot of water from my food but I my pee is still yellow if I don't drink enough.  I have noticed since mainly being on smoothies my pee is staying yellow longer...maybe my body having a chance to throw built up toxins out through my pee. 

I must say I feel my performance, skin and digestion have improved noticably since drinking more water but then again I have improved a lot of other factors at the same time too...it just seems wrong to have yellow pee & my mood is consistently good when it is clear...

You have definitely given me food for thought Jim, as usual!

Hey Free,  I think colour of pee is the thing to go by, but there will always be a tinge of yellow so I don't think getting it so diluted to the point where it is clear is necessarily the ideal.   I believe 8 times a day is optimal which I certainly do on just the large amount of food that I consume. 

One sub note I forgot to say is that if I am eating more sweet fruit than citrus on any given day, typically I am making smoothies and that has added water as well.

Anyway after dropping from 3 litres water to barely 1 litre, I noticed the dehydration and more yellow pee briefly, but after a few days I was really back to normal around 8 a day.  The only real difference is not the number of times, just the amount that comes out

In terms of hydration is better to be on the safe side of too much vs too less.  But I really do wonder what is ideal with this.  But what I do know from my own experience is that too much forces the body to expel water more efficiently and that may not necessarily be optimal.

I'll ask grant his opinion on this since I rarely see him ever drink water