Confessions...

You can be quite certain, when I'm hiding from this blog, it's because I've temporarily fallen off the wagon! I should be confessing daily, but instead I'm holding out for something positive. Not today...today I'm going to proceed with confessions of human weakness.

It seems my biggest weakness right now is failure to plan. Whenever my schedule picks up (and I know this occurs when my calendar has time slots marked, "talk to James," "shower," and "breathe"), eating doesn't make the cut and I fail to menu plan. This means that meals are impromptu and unfortunately often impulsive. Generally I'm also too tired to fight with my kids over the menu, so I take the easy route...mac and cheese, PB & J, Quesadillas...to name a few of the repeat offenses. These make meal time EASY. No fighting. No stress. No thinking.

But the dark side of that lack of stress and thinking is this trail of guilt that follows me around the house and everywhere I go...it makes me feel like I'm failing at the important things. Contrary to popular belief, I am of the persuasion that guilt is a good thing...it's our moral compass that let's us know when we're headed the wrong direction. I listen to my guilt instead of squelching it and brushing it under the rug. I know these foods are not good for us. I know that nutrition is lacking and fat, gluten, bad carbs, and loads of unnecessary calories are plentiful. My guilt tells me to eat better...and so I shall. I will probably cycle through this several times before getting it right most of the time. But guilt is what will keep me from abandoning it all together. So guilt is my friend.

I have been able to keep up on my Colonix program and this makes me feel good. Atleast not much of this junk is sticking with me! But I need to be giving my freshly cleaned colon some good nutrition to absorb. Did you know that your colon is supposed to absorb nutrition too? Not just your stomach? But we clog it up with so much junk that it often can't do it's job which is why so many Americans are malnourished without even knowing it.

Well, confession is good for the soul. Let's hope it's good for the diet too. Anyone else out there struggling? Leave me a note...I could sure use a support group right about now! lol.

Day 19 -- Christi

I have been a bad blogger...a direct reflection on the kind of dieter I've been!!!! BLAH! I had a great weekend...TONS of fun...but that's exactly the type of schedule and lifestyle that makes dieting difficult. And I COMPLETELY blew it! Ok, I shouldn't say completely. While on a date with my hubby, I did manage to choose a non-fried/battered option at Red Lobster on Thursday night which made me feel HALF decent about my level of dedication. But then I threw caution to the wind and had THREE cheesy biscuits cuz they're my ABSOLUTE FAV! Then on Friday I declined further with some late night chocolate chip cookies, which I made myself! Awful. Then on Saturday I had a piece of Marka's amazing lemon cake. Uuuugh...it was SO worth it! Then Sunday I should have warded off the munchies by having a lunch menu prepared for after church, but instead I fell prey to Sesame chicken and rice because we were all starving and anything I could think of would have taken too long to fix.

BUT, Monday arrived and I was back in the full swing of things and feeling good. I think the key to sticking with this is being able to forgive yourself...that has taken me a long time to learn! I worked out hard Monday morning, juiced, cleansed, had salad for lunch (with a little cheese on it...I will admit). For dinner I was out with a friend so I had hummus and pita bread for dinner. Not sure if that's on the approved list, but it sounded wholesome and yummy.

Here's a picture of Jadon who enjoys my morning juicing routine...he loves eating the carrot pulp after I strain the juice. It's about the consistancy of apple sauce, but it has more carrot than apple. He is totally addicted to it! That makes me SO happy. :) I love this pic...his hair is still all messy from just waking up.


This morning I'm battling the blues. The boys came down with a bug last night and James and I were up about every hour or so cleaning up messes and consoling them. I'm dead-dog tired and have sick kids on THE rare and beautiful, warm sunny February day that I can't take advantage of at all! But I'm hangin' in there and thankful that my office is in the sunniest room of the house so I still soak up some of the sunshine!

Day 14 -- Christi

The Raw Gezpacho I had today for lunch was YUMMY!! The flavors were zesty and well balanced. Mmmm. Very satisfied (especially after chasing it down with some Raw Fudge...hee hee).

My lunch Gezpacho: 5 tomatoes, medium handful of fresh basil, 1 clove garlic, 1/3 c. apple cider vinegar, 2 T. Bragg's Amino Acids, 1/4 t. salt. Blend. Add chopped bell peppers and raw corn straight from the cob.

Day 12 -- Christi

Tried the "Green Lemonade" today and I have to say, not a huge fan! I will be attempting it one more time with a PEELED lemon (the recipe SAID you didn't have to peel it!) and if that doesn't work, then I'm going to be moving on to the next green smoothie recipe. Here's me with my best "It's Yummy" grin, but don't fall for it...I only got down about 4 ounces even after adding honey to take the edge off!!
Other than that, things are going amazingly well. I feel great. I'm running on less than 4 hours of sleep right now, I worked out this morning, but I feel clear headed, awake and energetic. It's really a strange feeling!

Day 11 -- Christi

I am feeling SO GOOD on this diet! There are hunger pangs, I must admit, but I'm learning to actually appreciate them. I had my first good weekend since starting the C...weekends are THE hardest!! But I rocked it out with a salad for lunch each day and just very small and regulated amounts of cooked foods. I've dropped 5 pounds in one week and THAT feels GREAT! I even stayed strong through one of the TOUGHEST situations...we had a church carry-in on Sunday! I brought my own pre-packaged salad so that I wouldn't even have to go through the line. I was afraid if I went expecting to find a great romaine salad, I would find only a ranch-laden iceberg salad and I'd say "oh well" and then end up reasoning that since I'd already failed I might as well make it worth failing for. I know me! I'd talk myself into a little of this or that and before I knew it I'd be justifying a whole plate full of little piles! Too early in the game to be putting my growling tummy in front of a whole smorgasboard of food! Eventually I hope that I'll feel so good that I won't even WANT that stuff. But right now, it's not that easy.

You know what I totally hate though? I hate that skinny people's health problems are generally deemed unrelated to diet. HELLO! Metabolism is like the Devil himself! I truly believe that a large percentage of America's health problems (that I'm not even going to take a stab at) stem from poor diet. It's not always possible to change your dietary approach once you're suffering from a full blown illness, so I can't say that diet is the CURE to all illness, but I CERTAINLY believe it is the cause. I'm glad that I'm finding the motivation to do this earlier rather than later.

Raw Blended Carrot Renew

I thought I'd post a picture of my lunch! It was really yummy! Another recipe from Natalia's book that has been a pleasant surprise! This comprised of carrot juice, avocado, curry, garlic, ginger, and a little salt. It was a little heavy on the curry, but not too bad. I ALMOST didn't put the fresh ginger in it because it sounded like a horrid concoction. But I'm glad I did! The flavors all combined turned out to be really delicious! I highly recommend trying a few dishes that you expect to hate...it's really fun! :)

Day 9 -- Christi

Oh boy, yesterday was NUTS! Too busy to blog! But a strange thing happened! The only thing I ate yesterday was a large salad and some flax crackers...and strangely, I was hungry, but it didn't really bother me! I ate two pieces of sprouted grain toast before bed to calm my aching stomach, but I didn't cave to any crazy cravings, so I'm SUPER excited about that! On top of that achievement, the more I clean out my system, the more alive, aware, and energetic I feel! It's really incredible!

I'm moving up the dosage on the cleanse. It's been really easy so far. If you're looking for a cleanse that doesn't hole you up in your house for 2 days straight making mad dashes for the bathroom, this is definitely a good one for you! Carrying on with life as usual has been easy.

And carry on I must...more tomorrow...