Life gets in the way!

I've woken up this morning so tired I feel that I can hardly move. My sleep was badly interruped last night so I'm just exhausted. Yet 1/2 a glass into my morning green smoothie and I'm already staring to feel a bit more human. My husband came home from work yesterday with a propane burn on his body. He delivers propane for his job, and yesterday they had an accident. So his tossing and turning and discomfort keep me from sleeping well. However he's doing fine and I'm sure he will completely recover.

I've been on a yo-yo for about week with my diet. I'm still doing my green drinks and loving them. I can't imagine life without them. They make me feel so good! However it's the third meal of the day that I've been rollercoastering on. My kids have been cooking stuff way to good for me to pass up. However I've modified them so that they are still vegetarian, they just are not raw. So here is what I've learned from that little exercise.

1st- That I can't seem to loose weight while eating the vegetarian lifestyle. I tend to eat to much bread which I love. I love whole wheat bread and it's a huge temptation. However Josh's vegetarian pizzas on the whole wheat crust were amazing. When I eat this way I tend to over eat. Probably because I'm not getting enough of the nutrients that my body is needing. So I just keep nibbling and nibbling. As opposed to the raw way of eating. Once I eat I feel great and I really have no need to continue grazing on things. So there is much less snacking!

2nd- I learned that I can turn to the vegetarian lifestyle once I get my weight off. I can still enjoy those delicious things in moderation. I've not really gained much but I've certainly not taken any off. I thought that was comforting to know that I can choose that option once I've gotten my excess weight off.

3rd - I've been doing a book fair in my home for our homeschool network for the past week and 1/2. All my books and journals were moved from their normal location and I lost them in the shuffle. Hopefully I will find them again today. Because the thing that I have found is that I need constant nourishment to keep me going. Not the food kind of nourishment but the knowledge kind. I need to be reminded how amazing going raw can be for me. I find that if I read a little inspiration every day that goes a long way. The raw books and websites of people who have done this is so inspiring. So reading, sharing, talking, emailing, blogging... etc... Really helps to keep me on track.

4th- Journaling is key to me loosing weight. By being able to write my thoughts and feelings into my journal helps me a great deal. I usually make it a part of my morning scripture study. This really helps me to center myself for the day. I'm able to recommit to myself my goals and reasons for doing what I'm doing. As I write this my wonderful Father is in surgery for his heart. He is a wonderful man and I love him dearly. Yet I know that many of the problems that he has had over the past 7 years is due to his being severely overweight. I often find that I have many things in common with my Dad health wise. I know that if I don't get this weight off and keep it off I can be in his shoes some day.

I have to much to live for... to many books to read... to many more grandbabies to play with... to many places I want to see... to many things I still want to be able to do. So since I can't find my journal yet either... I'm here to rededicate myself and center myself this morning. I'm back to my 90% raw. I don't know why I'm so dense and so slow to learn. I feel better when I eat that way and I really do have goals to meet. I can't think of anything more wonderful than to be 200 lbs or less when my son David leaves on his mission. So it's back to work feeling great!!! As always I pray that the Lord will help me on this journey. I know I can't do it without his help, guidance, inspiration and support.
:)

Yay I'm a Size 18!!!

I'm so sorry that it's been so long since I've posted. I've been in charge of a family reunion and it was just a ton of work. So I've just not had a chance to post as much as I would like. The other problem is that I've been teaching my kids to blog and now they all want the computer! LOL... However the good news is that I can get into my size 18 clothes again! Yay!!! I can't believe it, because I thought I would need to be a few pounds lighter than I am. I can't get into everything yet, some things are still so tight that I wouldn't wear them. However I know that I can be comfortable in all of my 18's before the month is out. It's been a ton of fun going through my old clothes and finding things that I can wear. Even after a family reunion and a week long of book fair I am still feeling great! The hardest thing about the reunion was not getting the fresh veggies the way I'm used to. I put on 5 lbs while gone for 3 days. Very discouraging but the good news is I have it all off now. I'm on my way back down the scale again and that is what really counts.

My Mom made us a wonderful Sunday Dinner which I over indulged on. I ate, but I still felt hungry... so I ate more and I still felt hungry. After leaving there I was discussing it with my dear husband, asking him why I over ate when I haven't done it in months. Why would I keep eating when I felt full? Very wisely he said it was probably because my body was still trying to get the nutrients that it's used to. After thinking about it I'm sure that he was right. Because the majority of the meal (mostly comfort food) was dead and cooked. It was a great typical Sunday dinner and wonderful to eat and visit with family. So I realized that a great deal of the food we over eat on is due to lack of nutrients. I feel like such a dummy but it was such a good lesson to learn. So I guess it was worth the weight gain to learn and understand that simple thing. I'm fat because I wasn't smart enough to give my body the right nutrients go run on. I also have to apologize to my children. Because I've done the same thing my mother did, and I'm sure it was something her mother did, and her grandmother did and her great grandmother did. I've used food for comfort, for stress, for celebration, for everything but for nutrition and ultimate health. I'm learning late in life, but better late then never.
:)

An Amazing Week!!!

Ok, I have to tell you that this is my first full week of being completely raw. It seems that there is always a dinner, or lunch or something somewhere with food. It makes it so hard to eat completely raw. So I do the best I can and hope and pray that I don't go up the scale. I'm learning what does me the most harm and what's not to bad. However this week is the closest week I've had to being 100% raw. I would say that it was 99% and that's pretty dang good if you asked me.

However the results are what really speak for themselves. The weeks I fudge one meal I tend to loose about 3 1/2 lbs and I'm great with that. However this week being totally raw I'm down 5.8 lbs. WOW!!! This is just to amazing for me, and I can't believe that I would loose that much this far into the game. However I was able to meet last months goal and I'm thrilled. I have this great denium skirt that I love. However I've not been able to get myself into it for the past couple of years. My personal goal this month was to get into this skirt. Well I am please to announce that today I wore it to church. It was still a little snug around the waist but I wore it!

It felt so very good to meet that goal and know that I am making progress. My dear sweet husband is doing super too. So here is the proof that going raw can and does make a difference.

Goal for August!!!

Well I had to stop in and give a final report on my weightloss up to date. I am so excited to be in the 220's but I don't plan on staying here for very long. As of this morning I 228.8 and I couldn't be more thrilled. So I'm down a total of 21.8 lbs and on my way to 200. My son David has his mission call and goes into the MTC on the 8th of October. I'm going to be below 200 before he goes!!!

So now it's time to set a new goal... because they say if you don't write it down that it's only a wish. So my goal this month is to get lower than I did two years ago. My lowest 2 years ago was 215. So I've set my goal at 213!!! So I will be thrilled with anything less than that. I'm not sure I will loose as fast this month but who knows... maybe I can make it to 210!!! That would be so awesome but I'll take whatever the Lord is willing to give me.

Hope you all have a green day!
~Cheryl

Meeting July's Goal!!!

Wow, I can't believe that it's been so long since I've posted. Sometimes life gets so busy that you just forget little things like this. So my goal this month was to get down into the 220's. Last week I did great until we ate chinese and the sodium kicked my butt back up the scale. It was our anniversary and it was what my sweetheart was craving. (I think it's got to be all the sodium that makes me gain.)

Anyway I just had to drop a note today to say that I've lost a total of 20.8 lbs this month and I still have tomorrow. Not bad for one month of atleast 90% raw. I am personally thrilled with the results!!! And yes I did offically make it out of the 230's as of today!!! Yay!!!

Could I have done better? Yes I do think that I could have but I've enjoyed the journey to this point immensely. It's never a good diet when you have to deny yourself of everything. The important thing is, we went to dinner had a wonderful evening. I started right back up the next meal and I've not lost sight of the goal. I have a family reunion on the 9th of August and it would be great if I could get closer to the 220 side of things. So I'm working hard at being good and feeling great!!! I can't wait to see my Mother's face when she see's me down over 20 lbs. I've not told her what I'm doing yet, because I want to surprise her. I'm hoping that the 20+ lbs is noticeable, but if it's not that's ok. The important thing is that I feel great and I'm looking better to myself each and every day.

So I hope you all have a great day!
Make it green and drink a quart of "Green Smoothie"
:)

My amazing Ahhhha!!!

A couple of weeks ago I was watching the "Supercharge me" video. The gal in that mentions her weight... she mentions that she's lost 15 lbs. Then she corrects herself and says she's released the 15 lbs. As I thought about this quite a bit the last few days I had an epiphany. Why do we call it weight loss? When you loose something usually you find it again! Believe me I don't want to refind my 18 lbs of weightlss. However when you release something you usually let it go forever. I thought that was a pretty awesome thought! So from here on out I'm going to RELEASE my weight. I don't want to find it ever again!!!

I had a great lunch with a friend today. I thought she would think I was nuts when I told her about our Raw diet. However she was excited and I was so glad. The more people I find that don't think I'm nuts seems to give me strength. It is so great to have a network of family and friends that are so supportive. Thank you all for not thinking I'm totally nuts! :)

The weight is still coming off an an amazing rate. I love it and the energy level's are still super high. I did have a couple of days of cleansing where I felt kinda sluggish. However I just let it run it's course and I'm feeling really good again. So as of today I'm down exactly 18 lbs. I love it when I get on scales everyday and it keeps going down. It's even better that I keep pulling clothes out of my closet and they fit. Some are still snug but there getting looser each and every day. I'm already down 4 lbs this week and I'm thrilled beyond belief. Only a couple of more lbs and I've busted another O. I'm so excited to be so close to the 220's!!!

Well I hope you all have a great day because I know that I'm going to!!!
:) ~Cheryl

Reaching for a Dream!!!

I have you share with you a dream I've had for a long time. I am very intrigued with rock climbing and it's something I've wanted to do for a long time. Well our little town has a new Recreation Center. It has two swim pools, weights, walking track, treadmills, elipicals, gym and of course "Rock Wall". So the center has been open for about a month and I finally got my courage up enough to give it a try on Monday. Wow! What a rush!!! It was so much fun and I really loved it! The wall kinda has 3 areas... The left is the kiddie area with the dinosaur spine. (about 25 ft tall) The middle is more normal (about 30 feet tall) and the far right is the advanced stuff. (It's about 35 ft tall) Well with the wonderful help of my son-in-law Trevor I decided to give it a try. All the kids they had working the wall could not have weighed more than 160 to 180. So there was no way I was going to trust my bulk to any of them.

My first attemp was up the middle. At the 12 feet line there are red hand and foot holds so that you know where your at. So with my first attempt I found myself standing on the red markers before my hands were trembling and I came down. After a rest and waiting my turn I tried the kiddie side and made it almost all the way. I was only about 3 feet from the top. Then I just couldn't see where to go and my arms were wasted. One more rest, a potty break and a bottle of water and I tried my third attempt. Back up the middle and this time I went about a foot farther up. By no means have I mastered this skill but I had such a blast doing this. I'm so excited with my weightloss because it is giving me the courage to try something new. I'm going back today for another attempt. I know this will take time but it's so AWESOME!!! So my goal is to get to the top before the year is out! I'm am so glad that Sarah and Trevor gave me the courage to give it a try. Now I'm hooked for good! It was hard but it was totally worth it and I was so excited to be on a path to fullfilling one of my life time goals. I'll try to get some pictures of the wall and crazy me climbing it to add to this blog. So going green has definately giving me the energy to give this dream a go!

I had a Chocolate Shake yesterday!!! Yum!!!

I am so happy to report this weeks results. Needless to say it was far from being a perfect week. However I'm still down 4.2 lbs... Yay!!! We had the Rodeo in town this week and I ate fish and chips on Thursday night. Friday night we went to the Drive-in and yup I messed up again. I had a hamburger and french fries. The fish made me go up 1+ and the with the hamburger I maintained. However the next morning I got right back on the plan and the green drinks. So this shows you how you can loose great weight with just the green drinks. This week I'm going to try for a perfect week and see the results. This morning I'm down another 1.2 lbs so I'm off to a good start. I'm hoping to bust another O this week! Yay!!!

Yesterday I woke up from my Sunday afternoon nap craving something sweet. So I got up and made a treat! I made an amazing chocolate shakes and it was pretty legal. This is what I did.

I put the coconut water and meat from 1 young Thai coconut into the blender. I added vanilla, cinnamon and two small banana's. From there I added 2 handful's of walnuts and a cup of water. I quickly realized that this wasn't going to be enough for the 5 of us so I tossed in a can of Thai coconut milk (if I wasn't so tired I would have cracked open another Thai coconut, it would have been better) I blended this all up really well added a bit more cinnamon to taste and I really liked it. However I had to try it and I tossed in a big handful of roasted carob chips. (Yum) I blended this really well and then added ice until it was pretty thick.

This was so yummy and good! Even Josh who is pretty sceptical about these things downed his share of the pitcher. It was a cold refreshing treat and I loved that it was legal. I was worried because it tasted so good. However the days loss just goes to show that you can have your treats and still loose weight.

We have a family reunion coming up on the 9th of August. My goal is to work hard, loose all the weight I can and amaze my family. That's still 26 days so I know I can make a difference in the way I look. However my 15.8 lbs loss is starting to be noticeable. I'm feeling great and I'm digging stuff out of my closet that I havent' been able to wear in awhile. So I'm really hoping for another 15 lbs for the reunion... I hope that's not to big of a goal but I do think it is possible.
Well I've rambled on long enough and I need my smoothie! So I hope you all have a great day!
:)

The Power of Green!

So have you ever had a fried "Twinkie"? Well neither had I until Sunday afternoon. My teenage son Josh is the fry king around here. He loves to fry anything and everything he can get his hands on. For the 4th of July I had bought him some twinkies to as a little gift. He's been great to eat raw with us and he admits to actually liking a lot of it. However I knew he would make me crazy until he tried out his fried "Twinkie". So he started frying things up like crazy on Sunday. Fried pickles, (something from my childhood) mushrooms, anything he could get his hands on. Then came the twinkies... they found the recipe on the internet and jumped in head first. I was trying so hard to be good... but I did eat about 1/2 of a fried twinkie and 4 or 5 fried pickles and one mushroom. They tasted great... but about a 1/2 later my stomach hurt so bad I couldn't stand it. So instead of complaining I just went and made a green smoothie. It only took a few sips before my stomach started to feel better. By the end of the glass I didn't have that heavy awful fried food feeling. I felt good again!!! It's so hard to live in a place where it seems that so much of everything we do is centered around food. So if you find yourself eating something you shouldn't, green drinks save they day. With all of those live enzymes, amino acids and great vitamins and minerals. It really helps you get on track and get feeling better fast. The scale was even down the next day. :)

I BUSTED my O !!!

I am constantly amazed at how quickly time seems to pass. It seems like it was just yesterday that I was here, but it's been nearly a week! I realized that it had been several days since I had busted my O and that I had not shared it. Sunday was the actual day that I dipped below my 240! I was worried that it was just because I was fasting. However it has stayed and I'm so grateful that the Lord is helping me. As of today I'm down to 237.8 so I've now said goodbye to 240 forever. Once again I have to say how absolutely great I am feeling with these green drinks. I can't believe the energy and the overall feeling of well being I have. It is absolutely amazing to me that it is really this easy. I trying so hard to be 100% raw... we are constantly trying new recipes and finding amazing foods out there. Some things are so simple I can't believe that I haven't thought of them before.

We were in Salt Lake on Thursday for a meeting with Dave's brothers. So I took advantage of the situation and stopped in at the "Good Earth" there in Salt Lake. It was so exciting to go in and see what they had to offer. Just inside the door to the right there was an entire section of Raw foods. Cookies, crackers, snacks, treats, brownies, breads, etc... So we had to buy a few to give them a try. I think our favorite treat was the brownie we got. It was made by a company called Raw Revolution. It was so yummy... even my teenagers thought it was good. The only bad thing about it was that we had only bought one! They had quite a few other flavors but that was the only one we had bought from that company. It looks like they have a great website but I have yet to really sit down and dig through it. It's www.rawrevolution.com, so check it out. I've got to find the brownie recipe! :)

Another wonderful discovery was a raw cook book! Davy found it and it was so gorgeous that we just had to buy it. It is loaded with color pictures and recipes... I think it says over 100! In between the sections of recipes it has the two authors story and how they went raw. I would love to go to New York and try out their restaurant. http://www.purefoodandwine.com/ Maybe that could be a goal for when I hit my big goal and get back down to my healthy weight. You can read about their story, see some of their food and stuff so check them out. The book was a bit pricey but from the recipes we have tried already it is well worth it. Yum... I find it so much easier to stay raw when I have something new to try to feed my cravings. Last night we made their raw taco's. They had some heat to them but they were sure good.

Last but not least I finally got some books that I ordered. So I am currently reading "Green for Life" by Victoria Boutenko. Almost every single book and website I have read, they always seem to refer back to this book. I can see why, it has so much information and research. They've answered questions I didn't even know I had. For example... someone I was talking to the other day said something about blending greens and fruits causes fermentation in the stomach and that it was bad. I had never heard that before so I didn't know the answer. Except that I had been doing it for a couple of weeks and that I was feeling GREAT! So she tells you why in this book. The fermentation is true if it is with root vegetables. She teaches you that greens is a whole new catagory of vegetables in this book. It's really awesome! So I am loving my journey, I'm loving my weightloss, I'm loving cooking again (it's a whole new adventure now) and most of all I am loving those green drinks.

Going down again!

Yay... well with a couple of good meals under my belt I seem to be back on track again. The scale said 241.2 today and hopefully I'll be back where I was tomorrow. I guess the biggest difference in the cooked food and the raw food is really the way I'm feeling. I feel so good when I eat the raw stuff. Yesterday I had an amazing lunch - Alfredo Zucchini with Peas and Tomatoes and then for a afternoon snack I had fresh Broccoli dipped in Rich Cheddar Sauce. I couldn't believe how yummy they were and the fact that they were all raw. (their was no dairy in either of these dishes) I got the recipes for them at www.goneraw.com. I can't wait to try some more of their amazing foods. As I was telling someone the other day I never intended to go raw... I just starting drinking a quart of green smoothie every day and I felt so great it's just sort of grown this way. Anyway a brother of mine wants to try going raw for 30 days and see the effects it has. So I'm game and I'm going with him... anyone else want to jump on board and give it a try just let me know. I hope you all have a great day! I know I will because I only plan on eating the good stuff!!! :)

What NOT to do!!!

My weight today is 242.6 - yeah I know I'm up 2 lbs and I'm so mad at myself!!! So after more than a full week of eating totally raw and feeling really great! I found myself very tempted to go and have Chinese food with my family for dinner last night. It sure tasted good while we were eating it. We were really careful and ordered almost all vegetable dishes. I thought surely there can't be that much difference between gooded veggies and raw veggies. Man was I wrong!!! I only ate one plate of food and I didn't overeat.

So how am I now other than angry that I'm up two pounds? I slept terrible, I feel nauseated, my stomach feels like it has a huge heavy lump in it (after over 12 hours), and I have absolutely no engery, my lower back aches, I coughed for hours to get the flem out of my throat, no feeling of well being. I FEEL AWFUL!!! Was it worth it? NO WAY!!! Its devestating to me the difference of how I felt yesterday, so vibrant and energized and alive. Today I feel 1/2 dead! Man if that doesn't show the difference in live food -vs- dead food what can? I'm sure the adatives, sodium and cooking stuffs added to it. However I guess if I can store this feeling in my brain I may have learned a very valuable lesson. Live food really does make me feel so much more alive!

I can't go back to eating and feeling that way all the time. Not now that I have learned another, much better way of eating. I knew I had to sit down and make this post before I made my mornings green smoothie. Because I know once I drink it I will start to feel better. So I had to record all my thoughts and feelings before I went for the good stuff! So if you doubt weather this way of eating really makes a difference. Please, take my word for it... this is a so much better way of eating and feeling. I just pray that results of last nights foible will be quickly washed from my system and help me to move ahead.

:) - Go Green!!!

So where did I get my info?

This is the original website that I checked out.
www.rawfamily.com - This is the Boutenko Family! Lots of good info to read on their site, I really liked the newsletters that were online. Another website I found myself reading and watching for hours was www.rawmodel.com. He has a lot of video's on you tube too. Man if he can look that amazing eating raw, I want what he's having!!! A great place for recipes is www.goneraw.com - tons of good recipes with a little bit of everything! I'll add much more later!

:)

I'm down 10 lbs even today!!!

Yay!!! I am so excited, I got on the scale today and was thrilled to find I was down exactly 10 lbs! It feels great and I can't believe the energy I have. I'm water walking about 30 minutes a day at our new rec center and it's awesome. I know I'm losing lots of inches too, because I just put on a pair of Capri's that I haven't worn in a year. I weight nearly every day but I haven't measured myself in ages. A friend said the other day that my skin looked radient, wow I haven't had that compliment in years. The other thing I noticed is that my fingernails which are always brittle are growing like crazy and are much stronger. I really can't express enough how great I'm feeling! Even after my work out at the gym I feel really great!!!

Biggest loser club

I'm sure that many of you watch the "Biggest Loser" online. Well back towards the first of the year we joined their online challege for weightloss. We started well but got discouraged pretty fast. It all seemed like to much work and the food got boring pretty fast. This is what I was sort of doing until I started this in the first of June. I know that pictures can be pretty inspiring so here are some that we took of our family to send to our missionary. From back to from is Dave (wonderful hubby), Me, Davy, Josh and Katie. One of my long term goals is to get small enough to share clothes with my daughters. Well my youngest is so tiny and skinny that I really have my work cut out for me. Anyway this picture just goes to show ya I'm no small person.

My Green Experiment

There is another Mom in our home school circle. I noticed that she was losing some weight and that she looked really good. My kids kept making smart alec remarks about her green drinks and the way she was eating. I tried going Vegetarin about 10 years ago but it seemed to just be passing through one ear and out the other. After attending a youth conference with her and 3 other mom's she sent some links to some websites.

Needless it didn't take long to get very interested in some of the things I was reading. One sight that I found very informative was www.rawfamily.com . This is the story of an entire family of 4 going completely raw and their journey. One thing that inspired me was the idea of one green drink per day. How it could change how you feel and stuff. I was so discouraged with the current diet I was using that I thought what the heck. It certainly can't hurt to give it a try. So that is how I started.

The funny thing is that it only took a few days to start feeling really good and feeling more energy. I was eating terrible stuff and still feeling better. Not to mention the fact that I really liked the way the green drinks tasted. Pretty soon I was replacing two meals a day with these wonderful green drinks, and trying to make my 3 meal of the day as healthy as possible. Were certainly not 100% green/raw but I would say were sitting at about 90%. If you had told me a month ago that I would be doing this I would have called you a lier.

The thing I noticed right off is that I started loosing some weight. Plus I seemed to have more energy, feel better and have a more positive attitude. It's only been this week that we really have been about 90% green/raw. I'm loving every minute of it and I want to scream and tell the whole world. lol... I've noticed that a lot of people that are going green are keeping blogs. I thought was silly until I thought about all of my friends and family that I would want to share this with. What better than to have a record of what I've done for them to see for themselves. I'm so excited because I am feeling great and I'm loosing weight. As of today I've lost 9.4 lbs and I'm so excited!

This picture was taken in December with my darling hubby playing Santa Claus. I'm not sure of what I weighted at that time. However I think it was pretty close to what I weighed last month May 13th when my Son left on his Mission to Brazil. I promised him that I would loose weight so that we could go rock climbing when he gets home. So my current weight of 241.2 is very exciting to me and I love watching the scale go down more every day.