25 Prisoners Released!!!

i made it!!... 10 days on my rejuvenation challenge... 10 days at nearly 100% raw... only on a few days did i consume cooked legumes... other than that it was all raw... and this morning i woke up and knew that i needed to record some measurements... with that said, i'm happy to announce that, to date, 25 "prisoners" have been released from my domain... i refer to them as "Fat Pounds"... with good behavior they will remain free to roam the universe and, as attached as we once were, i pray that i NEVER EVER see them again!!... so i'm feeling great!... back on track with my high raw lifestyle... i haven't been measuring my blood pressure regularly, because it's been consistently NORMAL every single time (and because my home blood pressure monitor broke... lol)... BGL today was 153... still not where i wanna be but definitely not where i used to be... WT 349!!!!!! i'm soooo excited to be in the 340's again... lol... i can't begin to tell you how wonderful this is... like i've said before, perspecitive is everything... most people would be devastated to be 349 lbs... not me... i'm ecstatic!!... because i've been BIGGER!!!... and because of the direction i'm heading :)... ok... so i just took my fat analyzer measurement and my BMI is 53.1 and my FAT is 49.9%!!!!!!! i'm sooooo excited i'm almost giddy.... you can't understand this if you haven't been where i've been... i'm crying right now because i'm so happy... i just realized that it gave me a FAT measurement!!!... you don't even understand... every measurement i've EVER taken with this fat analyzer has given me the FAT result of "E4" which means i was too fat for the machine to even compute a measurement... this is the FIRST time i've gotten a reading... lol... THANK YOU LORD!!!... i just KNOW that with God ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE!!!... IT'S POSSIBLE!!!...

Completed Day 9 of my 10 Day Challenge!!

well... tonight ends 9 days on nearly 100% raw food... i ate cooked beans occasionally... and saturday, although i continue to tell myself that this is about total health and not about weight loss, i got on the scale and it said 349.5 lbs... wow... like i said before, who in there right mind would be excited to be 349.5 lbs????... anyone who's been 350 or more... lol... as of saturday morning, i have released a total of 24.5 lbs!!!... thank you Lord!!!... my blood pressure has remained normal and my morning blood glucose levels continue to fall... they are STILL not normal at this point, but they are on there way to being normal... i have zero cravings now and i'm feeling great... i'm still not sure what i'm going to do for the holidays and i have people coming over this weekend for a potluck... so i'm going to have to devise a plan that i can stick with... playing it by ear in the past hasn't worked as well as i would have liked it to... i have to come up with something quick... i think i'll prepare some raw food for myself and eat it, and even if i decide to eat regular food i'll eat my raw stuf first so that i won't be hungry... maybe i'll even pass on the cooked stuff... who knows... i don't want this to be a religion, but i do feel sooooo much better when i'm eating this way... *sigh*... anyway, tomorrow begins day 10 and i will have officially completed the challenge by this time tomorrow... i'm so on the fence with this... Lord, please help me as i continue on my journey...

Feeling Great! :)

so i'm on day four of my extremely high raw 10 day extravaganza and i'm feeling fabulous... i've been making some awesome meals... yesterday i had green peas sprouts salad with tomato and avocados chopped up, tossed with sea salt, dried crushed basil, olive oil and some balsalmic vinegar... don't know if the vinegar is 100% raw or not, but this is not a religion for me... lol... the day before i made an awesome green pea salad with fabulous creamy sauce made from cashews... i was licking the "batter" after making the creamy sauce... had NO idea it was going to taste that good... i'm loving the healthy feelings, increased energy... it's not rocket science... every time i do this i feel better almost immediately (at least by day 3)... anyway, i'm doing probably around 90 to 95% raw since i'm incorporating some cooked legumes into my plan... but that doesn't happen every day (only had it once so far)... most days i'm at 100%... we shall see how i do... i'm still trying to decide if i'll keep going after the 10 days are up... i don't know yet... we shall see... i need a made up mind... my desire is to have the desire to do this for at least 6 months... i'm hoping that i can make it through the holidays without going on some crazy binge... Lord, help me...

One Successful Day!

so yesterday, i did well... it was a high raw day... actually it was a 100% raw day, but just not 100% organic... so i count it as a major success... i actually gathered up all the contraband items in my pantry (mini candy bars, chewy candies, etc) and carried them into the office... lol... handed them over to the office staff and made their day... i did offer them a taste of my raw food for the day as well, but they declined... lol... i knew they would, but it helped me feel less guilty about giving them that garbage... i felt like i'd offered them a choice... it's so sad really... anyway, in just one day most aches and pains are gone and any body part that had begun to swell has gone back down to normal... amazing... thank you Lord for helping me complete yesterday successfully... now i NEED your help for THIS day...

i'm still struggling with deciding whether to "allow" myself cooked food on the weekends and/or during the holidays... i don't know yet what i'm going to do... but for at least 10 days i want to be 100% raw... let me just stick with the here and the now and deal with all that other stuff later... i'm soooo grateful :)

The Journey Begins Yet Again...

ok... so the last time i posted i had done an entire day 100% raw... i continued on the path for 6 days and attended a phenomenal conference which helped me focus on my journey... or at least i thought it did... but that evening (the 10th) i attended a birthday party at mitchell's ocean club... it was fabulous and i decided that a beefsteak tomato salad and ginger salmon with mushrooms was a good healthy choice... it was awesome... but it was cooked... and the sauce on the salmon had sugar and butter and salt in it... the perfect combination of sugar/fat/salt to send me OFF the wagon... i hung on for about 2 or 3 days still doing raw, but began adding cooked foods like cabbage and greens and by thursday last week i was doing 100% COOKED food... in addition to this, i had a visit with my doctor on that same thursday to review my blood work... my blood pressure and all other labs were normal EXCEPT my blood sugar (182 she said)... she wanted to start me on some meds, but i asked her to give me 3 to 4 months and i'd let her do an HA1c test at that time... she agreed... needless to say i went home and made some seriously bad choices... i decided to have my own personal "farewell to toxic food" extended binge party... i went to the grocery store and bought WHITE bread (i don't even keep bread in my house anymore)... i bought turkey slices and egg salad... and i bought DIET root beer... lol... the insanity of it all cracks me up... but it's sooo sad really... i bought all kinds of soups--lentil, vegetable, split pea, chili (gotta have fiber to move the garbage along quickly of course LOL)... and 0h yeah... i also bought ORGANIC beef hot dogs... lol... over the last 4 or 5 days i consumed almost everything i bought and topped it off daily with the chewy candies and mini mars/snickers bars i'd bought a few weeks ago... but today i'm taking all the left over candy/candy bars to the office and giving them away... i'm throwing away any crap left from my cooked and seriously unhealthy food binge... i feel the negative impact from just 4 or 5 days of craziness... and now i have a support group of people who went to the same conference i went to who are going to start a 10 day raw challenge today... so i'm getting on board and beginning this journey yet again... Lord, please give me the power and the discipline i need to succeed on this journey... i need all the prayer i can get... i didn't realize what a roller coaster ride this journey was going to be... i want to and need to succeed at this... i want t0 and need to be able to achieve the TOTAL health that God intended for me to have... i want to feel ALIVE again... ok... so here i go... YET AGAIN!

100% Raw Day :)

ok... so today was my first 100% raw day in a long while... i'm going to sleep in a few minutes so i don't mess it up... lol... had a green fruit smoothie and fresh fruit for breakfast and lunch, then tonight i got home and made some "not tuna" and ate it wrapped in collard leaves... then for dessert i made a whole fruit sorbet which was awesome... i feel good... doing ok... my friends funeral is tomorrow and i've been dealing with my feelings and making much better food choices... i've fallen down, but i'm getting back up on the wagon... again... never give up... like the theme for the oprah show today, i won't stop believing... with God's help, i CAN do this...