Day 7, still going strong

The detox is finally complete, but I'm pretty much going to stick to this type of simple food for a while. I will add nuts, seeds, avocado, and sprouted grains back into my diet, but I will try to keep meals quick and easy. When your body isn't working so hard at digesting your food, you really feel the extra energy. That is what I don't want to give up. For those of you considering this detox, go for it! You will learn so much and I know you'll loose weight if that's one of your resolutions. I lost 7 pounds, and would like to aim for 8 more, but I'm more concerned with just keeping active and eating raw. Weight is just a number, it's how you feel and the self-image you have that's really important.

As I promised, I have a video in store for you. Brent captured this video on our green smoothie this morning. I hope you enjoy. Please let me know what you think and if you would like to see more. Brent has also offered to demonstrate his delicious raw salsa recipe for a video next week. So here's the first, and very rough, Raw for Change video:

Blender mentioned on video: Breville BBL600XL Ikon 750-Watt 51-Ounce Blender. I happened to find the last one at Linens-N-Things so I got it for only $150 since they're going out of business.

As for the rest of the day, I had a plateful of fruits (cherries and an orange) and veggies (cauliflower, carrot, pepper, and tomato) for lunch with a banana for a snack before our bike ride. Then I had an even larger salad then yesterday's photo for dinner, but I couldn't finish it—too much to chew.

My confession: I ate dark chocolate (70%) and had a very small glass of red wine tonight. I was shocked at how a few sips of wine felt like 2 glasses! Wow, what a difference a cleansed body makes. Helps you realize just how much we poison ourselves... The chocolate was amazing. I'm not sure I can give that up completely, so I will just limit myself to small quantities of very dark chocolate and try out some recipes with cacao nibs. We also had a late night snack of zucchini "chips" and salsa while we relaxed at the end of the day.

To wrap up these past 7 days is hard. I've lost weight and moodiness, and gained so much more—energy, optimism, balance, confidence, clearer skin, and better sleep just to name a few. This is really going to help me accomplish my goals this year, from the inside out. Take care, and drop me a line/comment if I can help in any way. Health be with you!

Day 5, I'll admit it

I don't know why I did it, and it's not all that bad... I had corn on the cob tonight. The smell was so delicious and I was so hungry. Can't be too hard on myself for what most people would say is healthy, but I really wanted to make it through all 7 days without anything cooked, and I cheated today. We can't always live up to our own expectations, those are the most difficult anyway. So, instead of dwelling on this and letting the guilt get to me, I will move on—no harm done here. I'm still on my path, I just took a pause.

Breakfast was delicious today, but then again, anything with raspberries is delicious to me. I made a green smoothie from spring mix greens and frozen raspberries. Still miss that touch of honey, but it's not necessary any more.

My "visitor" also came by today, and I bring this up because when I stopped eating raw a couple months ago this was greatly affected. Going raw helps with the emotions, bloating, cramps, regularity, and length. So I'm looking forward to returning to those days once again. And since we're on this topic I want to promote a product I love: the diva cup. That's all I'll say. Click the link, it's amazing—it works better, is better for the environment and saves you lots of $$$.

Back to foods, had an apple for a snack and lunch consisted of:

• tangerine
• brocolli (2 small heads)
• celery
• carrot
• baby peppers
• green onion

I brought a couple starfruits for an afternoon snack and they sure got a lot of attention at the office. I didn't realize so many people are affraid to try "exotic" fruits. Once they did, they realized what they were missing out on. Not sure why I craved coffee all of a sudden today, maybe it's the Friday atmosphere at work and how I used to have a couple cups out of excitement for the weekend. Well, I don't need that any more—I've got enough excitement as is :)

For dinner, I just added some more veggies to the leftover salad from yesterday, and the corn of course. So far I've lost 6 lbs! I didn't think it would be this fast, but it feels so nice not to have that heavy feeling any more. Even though my clothes don't show much of a change (I can usually fluctate 10 lbs in my jeans thank goodness) I feel great changes and soon they will show even more. Just need to keep up with the exercise. For which I took the dogs for a walk today, but not as long as I should have since it was so cold out and getting dark.

This weekend shall be fun. Tomorrow starts off with the farmers' market and I'll be taking my camera to share photos for the next post. Then look out for a video on Sunday.

Today's question:What's the strangest fruit you've ever tried?