Just a quick post

Hello Lovelies,

This is just a quick post to let you know how I am doing with my gentle transition to raw.

Now, at the moment I am roughly half way through my first month. So my goal is to eat one raw meal a day.

So far, I have had a rather good measure of success. Some days, I will manage to eat one very good raw meal, and on occasion I haven't. I would take the attitude that it doesn't matter, but in fact how I eat does matter. How I treat my body determines how long I live and the quality of life I have.

Something that has really worked for me is blended sauces for salads and cooked food. Specifically blended red pepper, which is excellent because it is sweet, and a fantastic base to add other things like spices or tomatoes and blend in. This is something that has been a bit of a saviour on a not so good food day. Sometimes I have used soaked cashew nuts in the sauce, I must say, that as I haven't been able to get ahold of the raw nuts, I know that I am missing the point with this one.

My other go to raw food habit is smoothies. Now for a smoothie, I use frozen fruit and rice or soy milk. I know that strictly speaking this isn't raw, but it kicks the arse off a cup of coffee for a pick me up. AND if you use a lot of frozen fruit so that it is nice and thick, you feel like you have ice-cream. Now that's nothing to be sniffed at, ice cream that didn't hurt a cow and won't clog your arteries. I am going to start making smoothies with home made juices, because let's face it, it's going to be better for you than something made with a processed and sweetened milk substitute.

There is something that I am really excited about. I have signed up to do a part time course in Holistic Massage. I was thinking about trying to work less hours, and work in a more ethical industry. Because I do have an overall plan, so this will not be the last time I will study for my own personal development.

So that's how I am doing. I hope you are well, and that you have enough energy to be steadfast with the resolves you have to make your life better.

Great day - Rubbish day

Hello Darlings,

Well the title says it all. Some days I have great days food wise and other times I have days where I eat nothing except for what is bad for my body and spirit.

Now this isn't good by any means and I am sure that everyone who embarks on making positive changes in their lives has setbacks and suffers the effects from them. It is true that every day that you treat your body well is a bonus, what concerns me is this. When I go from great food back to bad food I get days of IBS symptoms.

There are many blog articles from very successful raw foodists who say very clearly that is wise to make a transition to raw food. This is something that I think that I will do.

So my plan is this.

For one month, starting today, I will eat at least one good raw food meal a day.

After that, I will eat two raw meals a day for the next month.

And for my final two months of transition. I will eat either three raw meals a day allowing for a cooked snack or two raw meals with a raw snack.

How does this sound? Too much? Too slow?

I know that success is it's own reward and for this particular task good health is a much further reaching advantage.

Now my challenges this week are that I have my partner's Mum over for dinner this Friday evening, and we are going out for dinner with friends on Saturday. Phew, quite a busy weekend, actually a bit busier than I would like especially seeing as I would like to sit down and sew for a few hours.

So, seeing as it is Tuesday today, and it's still morning, I have 6 opportunities to succeed at my raw food goals this week. Today is more or less in the bag so to speak as I have packed myself a large salad, a couple of blood oranges and an organic apple.

Happy New Year! (catch up post)

Hello lovelies. I hope that you are all well.

I said in my last post that I had more to tell you about my time visiting my family, here goes.

Now, if you are in my family and you stumble across this blog, I am sorry if you are offended by anything I write and I appreciate that I am on a much different path to you. Hopefully you will read what I have written and just know a little more about me.

So, my original flight over to stay with my parents was cancelled. Their local airport was shut down down to fog. Not a problem, I rescheduled to go and see them after Christmas. It was quickly evident that things are not well with either of my parents. My Mum is suffering with various physical complaints and my Dad, well he just seems out of sorts. It was good to see them, and it would have been good to stay with them for longer, but I just couldn't.

I haven't told you that I come from a family of smokers and I am an ex-smoker myself. Not only are my family smokers, but they seem to have missed the part where you make an effort when someone visits you and perhaps smoke a few less, or even open a window. So, my parents chain smoke, in front of me, with no window open. Then my sister comes round, we have an uneasy relationship for a number of reasons, she looks to be in bad health, and after years of being off the fags, she is back smoking.

After just a few hours at my parents' house, I could actually feel the smoke poisoning me. My chest was heavy and I was having trouble breathing. When I was ready for bed, I went up to my old room, and I just couldn't sleep more than an hour. My chest was so tight, everything stunk of cigarettes, my body was warning me that I was being poisoned and that I should get out!!

So, I sent my boyfriend a text message asking him to book me into a hotel. I explained to my parents that i just had to get out because of the cigarettes and I left that evening, stayed in a hotel on my own and basically wasted some useful time off and not a small amount of money.

Now, I haven't spoken to my parents about this, and I would guess that they have taken a very dim view of me leaving their house. I would hope that this event will spur them on to reduce the number of cigarettes that they smoke.

I could rant for pages and pages about the addictive nature of smoking and how hard it is to stop. At the end of the day what I don't understand is this. Everyone, none the least my parents, are looking for ways to have a bit more money in their hands, be that through living a little more leniently, turning the heating down, reducing the miles that you drive. Whatever it is, I can't believe that someone will try many things to save money but still smoke packs and packs of cigarettes which is essentially burning your money.

Breathe in - breathe out. Yes my family's smoking is a sore point, I feel so powerless to help them stop.

Now there are other things that aren't well with my family, an elderly relation is in very bad health, a younger relation is making some decisions that she will most likely regret in years to come.

None of this I am in a position to change or help with, so, I hope that I am endowed with the sensitivity and knowledge to be able to help them should any of them be receptive to help.

To you, I wish you a happy new year, and that you have the energy and foresight to complete things that are sent your way.