My 9 Day Update

"It's not a matter of whether or not your body can do it, it's a matter of how you let your mind command your body."

This randomly came out of my mouth while I was running a few minutes ago. I like it. It says to me: you have total control over your body at all times, if you choose to make use of it.

Thursday was rough. I felt really tired and spacey all day. The right side of my head hurt really bad. It felt like there was a metal clamp running from the top of my right eye over my head to the base of my scull and somewhere in the middle someone was wrapping the metal around a pole and pulling it up. The pain was from stress, detox and over exposure to electromagnetism (specifically the fluorescent lights and the computers in my office). At this point, I became aware that it was a physical AND emotional detox. I had negative thoughts coming through my mind all day, things I hadn't though about in years. On top of that, I was craving caramel macchiatos from the moment I opened my eyes in the am. When you go through detox, often times the past symptom (such as pain), cravings or thoughts will come up. IF you can sit with it, they will pass and you will lighter that you ever imagined possible. In times past, I would have quit raw right then and there, but because I made such a loud commitment to it, I took a nap, drank a lot of water and grounded out by making RAW Almond Cookies (oh and, confession...I made "Chewy Chocolate Freezer Fudge" too). So delicious!!!!!!!!!!

*Recipe Time*

Both compliments of the AMAZING book, "Raw Food, Real World" by Matthew Kenney & Sarma Melngailis
http://www.oneluckyduck.com/

Raw Almond Cookies:
4 cups coarse almond flour
1 cup almond butter
3 tablespoons agave nectar
1/2 cup raw honey or date paste
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons sea salt
2 packets stevia (optional)-->I didn't add these!!

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. Munch on the raw dough...or...put in a dehyrator (or oven on warm) for awhile. Pull them out occasionally and see how they taste. They don't have to get to a certain temperature, so enjoy!

Chewy Chocolate Freezer Fudge:
2 cups almond butter (one 16-ounce jar)
1/4 cup cacao
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons maple syrup (I use agave nectar)
1 heaping tablespoon coconut butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt

Combine all the ingredients. You can put these into little candy molds, but I just put it in a glass bowl and stuck it in the freezer, covered. The next morning, I pulled it out, cut it up and indulged! Y-U-M-M-Y!
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And on to today. It was gorgeous out and I had activities outside all day long. When I left the house really early this morning, I took my little brother, Ean, (who is in fact the coolest little brother ever) to the bagel shop. He got a plain bagel with cream cheese. At first I was fine. Then, as he ate it and made those, "oh, yum...Terra this is delicious!!" noises and comments, I began salivating. Now, Ean is 10 and it would not be cool to rip his breakfast out of his hand and scarf it down. But I did anyway. Ha. Just kidding. I have to admit though, it was tough not asking for a little bite, but I made this commitment to raw, right...right...? And come hell or high water I'm going to stick to it (unless of course, for physical, mental or emotional reasons it becomes unhealthy or dangerous at which point I would not for a second think of continuing.)

I actually didn't eat much today. I ate 5 oranges & 2 grapefruit plus grapefruit juice, a green juice with wheatgrass, cucumber, parsley, apple, lemon, some almond cookies, a small piece of freezer fudge, cashews and some aloe juice. It's been really interesting getting further into this lifestyle. My body asked for oranges and grapefruit all day, so I ate them, literally, all day long...juice

dripping

down

my chin and drying on my hands. They were amazing, the perfect compliment to any Saturday. The best part is that I'm not hungry at all this evening and my mind is here, with you, not on food (except writing about it:-)

Wiggle-Ometer Update!
It has officially been 9 full days, so here it goes...

*Weight: 145 lbs
*Waist: 36 1/4"
*L & R Arms: 12"
*Right Thigh: 23 3/4"
*Butt: 41"

T H E :F A C T S

I've lost 8 pounds.
I haven't worn a bra since the 1st.
I haven't washed my hair with soap since the 1st. (Only baking soda and apple cider vinegar AND no, I don't smell strange:-))
I still don't have a shower head to filter the chlorine & fluoride out. Next paycheck.
I am having challenges drinking only spring water and have not been totally successful. We ran out of spring water. I have, however, been very specific about the water I drink.
My energy fluctuates a lot. Today I was really tired. Yesterday, I had a ton of energy. It's a process.
My ability to bounce back when something other than the best ever happens has increased a million fold. Overall, I feel so much more vibrant AND very friendly. It's a lot of fun walking around wanting to say HI to people instead of trying to avoid eye contact. Yay.
I am getting VERY goal specific.
I am eliminating what I no longer need.
I am detoxing. Often.
I am taking a stand for what I believe in, now, more than ever.

Alright...I'm off!

So much love and total success to you and your journey!!

P.S. A few people have mentioned to me that they will not give up meat. My view on life is that it's a journey so why not experience every side of it. If you feel so inclined, just give recipes, cleanses...whatever else that comes up in here... a try, see what it tastes like...throw it on the ceiling or scarf it down in one bite. Whatever works for you...do that.

Meat. Meet. Me, etc.

I feel great today. I've been doing some heavy detoxing. Before bed, I have been getting headaches. I'm about 98% sure it's from not having cacao since the morning, which still has some caffeine in it. My body begins to totally detox at night and then while I've been sleeping, my body has been responding to having all plant based foods and is releasing toxins into my bloodstream to be excreted.

When I wake up, I have a stomach ache and have to use the bathroom. I drink my quart or so of water with MSM* and fulvic acid* and start my day. After just a few minutes, I feel great, refreshed and ready to go. My lower intestines and stomach feel really light and clear. It's absolutely wonderful!

Yesterday, I ate 99% raw:

**Cacao/agave tea
**3 raw homemade cinnamon rolls--> And it is SO EASY TO MAKE! (
*Compliments of the "Superfoods" book by David Wolfe
~1 cup pecans
~1 cup dates
~Cinnamon
~Coconut oil
~Raw Cacao
----------
~Throw dates and pecans into a food processor and make into a dough (add a bit of water if necessary)
~Spread Cinnamon on the counter
~Roll out your dough on the cinnamon. If it sticks to the counter, add more cinnamon
~Melt the coconut oil on low heat and add cacao
~Pour cacao/coconut mix onto the flattened dough
~Roll up and cut into sections.
~Eat and Enjoy!
**Raw tacos (recipe coming soon!)
**Superfood mashup (This is just a bunch of superfoods, nuts and fruits blended together that create optimal nutrition. It's basically all the nutrients you need in one meal.)
**Kale Salad with lemon, olive oil, breadcrumbs (which were not raw and I thought were a seasoning from True Foods) and almonds
**Juice from True Foods. I discovered it had black tea in it, which I was unaware of before, so that's now out.

And...duh duh duh...other things:--->

Meat
I get asked these questions a lot: "Do you think meat is bad?" OR "Do you think people shouldn't eat meat?" It's always defensive unless the person already thoroughly understands nutrition and they are genuinely curious.
So, do I think you're going to hell because you consume meat? Haha. That sounded funny just writing it. No, I don't even believe in hell but rather that it is a self made place. Meat, in my humble opinion, is a personal choice. That choice, however, should not be made with a blindfold on. The traditional meat sold in the marketplace today is not okay for human consumption. It's just not. That can't be refuted. Even places such as the New York Times are reporting on this now
A book called The China Study conducted a 20 year (and yes, a very controversial) study on the consumption of meat. They found that it was directly linked to cancer. There is a lot of research out there on this, obviously not much is presented here, however, it's a good thing to know about...so you're not caught with that pesky blindfold stuck to your face. It's not a secret anymore that what's going on in the meat industry (and the food industry in general) is other than the best ever. Cancer and disease caused is just the beginning. Treatment of animals, etc. is a whole other topic. Okay.

So, how do you still have your meat and eat it too?
~Choose Free Range (and actually do the research as to where it comes from, what they are feeding it, etc.) Animals are not meant to be fed corn mash (for the most part) & most of the corn that is presented is genetically modified. More on genetic modification soon. They naturally graze on grass and such. It's important this is part of the knowledge to be obtained when choosing your meat.

~Kill and prepare it yourself (This probably seems kind of extreme. But, it's an option.)

Meet:
One of my favorite things about the raw food lifestyle so far has been all the synchronicities. I've been meeting amazing people and everyday there are a plethora of awesome opportunities that meet me. It feels like as soon as I think of something, it comes into my life, either the best stuff ever or not so much the best stuff ever. What ever it is though, has been in direct relation to what I had thought about, literally just hours before. A small example of this was at True Foods last night. I was sitting with my amazing mentor and we already had our food and juice/tea drinks. As I was sitting there, I had briefly though "I'm getting thirsty". No more than 2 minutes later, the waiter set one glass of water down on my side of the table without ice. I don't ever have ice in my water. It was awesome! I'm going to keep practicing!;-)

Me,etc.
Finally, I realized that I haven't really been open about what I "occupy my time with". (I love that!)
So, soon I'll be including what my beautiful life entails.

Until later <3

Quick Tip from a Guest!

Hey hey hey!

Thank you to Jeanne for this awesome quick tip to try at home;-)

She mentioned this, "A while back I tried an "anytime" drink that is similar to your lemon/garlic/water. It is a mixture of cucumber, peeled ginger, and water. I always cut the seeds out of the cucumber because they annoyed me when they got stuck in my mouth. This mix is suppose to remove excess water & toxins and flatten your belly at the same time. When I drank it, it was always refreshing. It even curbed the appetite a bit. Best part is that it tasted good and you did not cringe before gulping!"

EXCELLENT NEWS! More goodies out there for us to enjoy.

So much love:-)

Pointed or Pointless

I didn't post yesterday. I just didn't feel like it I guess. Or maybe I just didn't know what to write about. Then, the question is, does it even matter? Is it affecting me? Is it affecting you?

I guess there's no real way to know, so I decided to just stick to the commitment. Quitting early on something that I know in my heart of hearts is right, is not for me. But then the question presents itself, if it's not right and it doesn't totally fit my mission & purpose for life...do I "stick it out"? Who invented that saying anyway? Why would you stay with something if you hate it? For the money? For the company? For the people involved? Because you don't know what else you would be doing? Because you're afraid to leave? I've been asking myself this question a lot lately, with many areas of my life.

To answer all these questions for myself (which are still not solidified), I've been running two things around in my mind. First, a dear man that held a gathering for New Year's Eve with his partner asked me, "What occupies your time?" This wasn't, "What do you do for a living" which limits that you can answer. The second question forces you to answer what you do to bring in money...but what if that doesn't define who you are? Well, normally I would still just answer. But his question was very different and it made me wonder, "what do I and WHAT DO I WANT TO be occupying my time with?" What's actually important? I've been journaling about this and being brutally honest.

The next quote was from Ian Clark at the Longevity Now Conference back in September. He said during one of his presentations, "Be careful not to let the good and great get in the way of the greatest." Woah. This hit me so hard. I've always done what was "good or great"...but I've let those two get in the way of the greatest. Until now, I've been afraid of my own personal power. When my attention and focus is put whole heartedly thrown into something, I'm always successful. Anyone can be. With passion, direction, focus, creativity and intention, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. It's about waking up with THAT thing on your mind that makes you so excited to be alive and awake in the morning that you can hardly wait to spring out of bed.

Finally, I've been watching these videos:

All of this raises the question, is my life pointed or pointless? Am I making a difference or just trying to make it?

I've got my year planned out in "dreams with deadlines"...and they are accomplish-able but at the moment, I'm not on track. Hum, excuse me. I'm going to go and change that. Now that I'm thinking about all of this, it's totally ridiculous. Why wouldn't I be doing exactly what I LOVE all the time, making money doing it and being ultra successful? This is silly.

I'll be back.

The Tangy Life

Today was better. I woke up on the wrong side of the bed, but the day sure got brighter. I was buying lemons at Trader Joe's and the lady who rang me up asked if I cooked with lemons a lot. I told her that I actually drink lemon water in the morning. She was stunned.

So, I thought I would share the "why" to why I do that;-).

Our bodies fast when we sleep (no food or water). When you wake up in the morning, your body has done its best to push the toxins out of your cells and fat tissues and into your blood stream to be removed. The BEST thing to do is to drink a quart of water with some lemon juice in it (and I add fresh minced garlic as well) and drink it down BEFORE anything else goes into your body. This helps to flush away all the nasty toxins as lemon is very cleansing and the water is, well, obviously hydrating.

The worst thing you can do is eat a huge breakfast right when you wake up. Since your body has been fasting, your metabolism is running really slow AND if you eat that huge breakfast right when you wake up, it will absorb the toxins which will in turn go right back into your body. That's the part they forgot to tell us in school when they were giving us test tips!

Anyway, I made the most delicious raw recipes today:
*Cinnamon Rolls (Straight out of David Wolfe's "Superfoods" book
*Aphrodisac Balls (Again out of the "Superfoods" book
*Tomato soup
*Pate
*Collards spice
Pictures & details soon.

Anyway, all in all I feel light. Detox central today, if you know what I mean;-)

I love you.
Terra

Chocolate Challenges

I felt angry today.

I felt angry that there are so many chemicals in society. Angry that I decided to do this. Angry that when I get in my shower I'm washing my hair with baking soda and apple cider vinegar.

Angry that I can't get water anywhere I go because it's not spring water from the source. But then again, I don't want to drink the dead water, that's why I made that rule in the first place. I don't want to drink water that has been bottled, stripped and then packaged. Especially in plastic. It has no life force. Uh.

Angry that there isn't anywhere within 2 hours that I can eat food that is organic, local and raw. Why? Uh. I have to make it all. (Jim helps so much and bless him for that. Seriously.)

And confused. What is my life's purpose? I keep trying to put my goals on paper for 2010. I keep trying to write them out and put an action plan to them. I know I have a big purpose, I was telling my mom at 5 that I was going to "save the world". But what is it. Why doesn't life come with a manual? Seriously.

I know that this is all just a byproduct of detoxing all the old, gross stuff from my consciousness. It's such a process. I know that I can change my thoughts and just be happy, but it feels like a monumental task right now.

Okay. So after all that... there was a great part to my day too. Chocolate.

A few months ago when I was leaving coffee behind for good, I started drinking an awesome raw chocolate drink.

KICK THE COFFEE HABIT: LOVE THE CHOCOLATE!!!! (If that calls to you:-)

This is how to do it:
*1 TBS RAW Cacao
*1 TBS Agave Nectar
*Heat water (not too hot)
*Mix the cacao and agave together to make a type of paste
*Add water, stir
*ENJOY!

This will seriously take your mind right off coffee. Like coffee, it makes you feel thirsty, so make sure you have water available after drinking it. You will never look back.

I had an AHA! Moment today. Our Cali friend Joseph said, "I love the way your pantry looks." Haha. Sounds strange, I know. But it made me realize that when I went to the store, I decided to buy what was in there. I decided to stock it full of the BEST FOOD EVER. That was a choice. This microscopic realization did in fact hammer home the idea that I DO CREATE my entire life, the good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful. I'm creating it now and have ever since I was born. It's ALL been a choice depending on what I focus on and in this case, good food or not.

I love you,
Terra