Raw Again

I am starting on a 2 week raw vegan diet again today. I am much less apprehensive this time since I know it can be done and it really isn't that hard to do. For my first meal I threw together a delicious fruit salad. In the mix:

1 sliced banana, 5 sliced large strawberries, about 10 blackberries, 1 small sliced pear, about 10 green grapes sliced in half, then topped with 1 tbsp chia seeds.

Done with Raw

(We are heading to Helen next week so I brought back an on Helen pic from 2010)

I completed my 2 week raw vegan trial yesterday evening. It was a real eye opening experience. I surprised myself, it was a lot easier than I expected it to be. I became a lot more in tune to the flavor of foods and my taste buds definitely became more sensitive. I think this is something that I will try and rotate out every other month or so. It was a painless way to drop pounds quick because I was able to eat SO much food but didn't feel guilty about it. I lost 1.5% body fat in the past month, woohoo!
I picked up some tricks and recipes that I can use mixed in with my regular diet. Probably the best "trick" I learned was ribboning zucchini to use in place of pasta. Easy and tasty! I also learned to enjoy salad without dressing, something I always envied of others that did. I used dash seasoning on my salads a lot and added lemon or lime juice. I am also going to start taking fruit more often as my snacks at work instead of granola bars and heavily processed items. Spices, spices, spices lots of flavor and no calories. I also learned that I CAN live without cheese. Wow! I went 2 weeks without cheese, I don't want to spend my life without cheese but I will definitely decrease my consumption and eat it more as a special treat. I may have a slight cheese addiction, I'll admit it!

Weekend with the Hubby

I got home from work the other morning and Clay was sleeping, there was a note on the door to go in his computer room and watch what he had pulled up on his computer. I was expecting a new movie trailer or a new song he wanted me to hear. I was so pleasantly surprised and my heart was warmed when I saw he had made me a sweet video using pictures he had gotten from my blog. What a thoughtful gift, and so nice to know he was thinking of me while I was off at work.



I actually had the ENTIRE weekend off, and nothing that I had to do. It was awesome! Friday night we were lazy, watched some television and went to bed pretty early. Saturday was rainy but we made it to Macon to go swimsuit and dress clothes shopping. No luck on the swimsuit, Wow! they are skimpy. However I did find some nice dress clothes and I found out that I am a size 8 now in NY and Company clothes. Unbelievable! I have never been smaller than a size 12, and at my heaviest I had gotten to an 18 pushing closer to a size 20.
Clay was a great shopping partner, he has turned out to be much better at picking stuff out for me than I am for myself. I am still very much stuck in the heavy girl mindset and he pushes me to try new items. He ended up finding me an awesome skirt suit set, perfect for upcoming interviews. He was wowed when I tried on the dress below he sent the pic he took to all kinds of folks via text message with the title "hubba." Embarrassing? yes, a little, Flattering? yes, a whole lot. I think I will bring him along shopping for clothes from now on, not sure how keen he will be but he sure is helpful! No luck on bathing suit, but I will try try again.

(Before and now Dec 2007- March 2012)

I have just tomorrow left on the raw vegan diet. That will conclude my 2 weeks on it. So far I have lost a little over 5 pounds. I have not stayed hungry, I have eaten TONS of fruits and veggies. I think that this is something that I will rotate in my diet maybe once a month for a week. It is much easier than any other "diet" I have done because you can eat so much food that you stay full, and fortunately I like most fruits and veggies anyway. I have my monthly assessment with Joey on Tuesday so I am super excited to see the body fat % and measurements this month!

SIAB

Started feeling the afternoon slump so I made a GIANT green smoothie in a bowl (SAIB) and topped it with a few sunflower seeds. In the mix: peaches, banana, water, ice cubes, and about 3 big handfuls of spinach. Yummy!!

Raw?

So, I have been MIA for a while and I am trying to get back on the boat. I have still been exercising but I just haven't had the groove for blogging about anything. After a few months of trying to bust a weight plateau my trainer has decided to have me try a raw diet for 2 weeks. Today is day 2. I will try to upload photos as I come up with new combinations. I just sat down to a plate of kale that I ran through the juicer saved the juice for a smoothie later today. I topped the kale with a LOT of lemon juice and some fenugreek powder ( I have been eating dried spices/herbs to add flavor) and some sea salt. I am feeling pretty good today, yesterday afternoon I hit a major slump and just never felt awake. I was actually down 2 pounds today?? Not sure where that came from but I will take it. Curious to see how this goes. Not planning on changing up my workouts during this time period, just maintaining and changing my diet.