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Thursday 17 November 2016

WEEK BEGINNING 18TH JULY 2016

WEEK BEGINNING 18TH JULY 2016

CURRENT WEIGHT 17st, 9lbs loss of 28lbs

Can you believe it I have made it to day 33 raw! And so far and if I am not mistaken I have lost 2 stone, is that possible in just over a month unless I am getting the calculations wrong.  Today is Wednesday 20th July and that is what I weighed in at.  At the beginning of this journey I started at 19st 7lbs, you do the maths!

Now that I have got into my fifth week of going raw I thought instead of doing a daily journal so to speak I thought I would carry on from here on weekly basis until the end of the month and then monthly as daily, and for me in particular, it can get really boring and repetitive and to be honest I out did myself keeping the daily blogging up for so long lol.  Instead I will do highlights of my week/month and anything that I have done different that I have not shown before.  I thought I would also share some recipes I have been using and add them into the blog as well has doing some you tube videos as there is nothing like seeing yourself in the raw (so to speak) to make yourself accountable.

What have I learnt so far?  That you can be on a raw food diet and still not lose weight, why? Because in the beginning all the raw gurus say eat anything you want but make sure its raw.  Now if you are loading up on nuts like me in the beginning, loads of dehydrated stuff, lots of oils in your dressing and in your food and going for all the raw chocolate you can eat the weight loss is not going to happen, I guess it did not affect me so much in the beginning as I have a lot of weight to lose and I am still at the beginning of my journey and still have at least another 4 stone to lose if not more, so I say everything in moderation, treat yourself but don’t make it a habit is what I say!

This week so far, I have gotten rid of Able and Cole organic boxes and gone local instead.  I found 2 local organic boxes in my area the first one is called Windmill Veg Box Scheme and it’s a community garden around the corner from where I live who grow organic and might I add (speaking as a Londoner or course), really cheap weekly veg box and although I will be paying for it monthly its works out that I pay £6 per week, score!  Their website is www.thanet.veg-box.org.  if you get the chance go check the website as it has an interesting story as to how they started, I almost wanted to go and volunteer (but not quite ready for that yet lol). That one I do for just veg which is mostly salad stuff at the moment in their boxes and the other one which I do for fruit is www.kentvegbox.com .  When I was in London eating organic was so expensive but I am spending £16 on organic fruit and veg and if I am desperate I just run down to Aldi to stock up and typically I am spending all together around £40 per week on fruit, veg and coincidentals. 


Check out where I collect my veg box from!



What I am excited about this week is how well my wheat grass is growing, I bought some wheat grass seeds from amazon, a kilo cost me the grand total of 1.95 and it looks fantastic not bad for a novice, only thing is I don’t have the correct juicer to make the most of the wheatgrass so what I am going to do it blend it with as little water as possible then add it to my juices or smoothies to get the benefits.

Its Thursday and I went along the sea front to collect my veg box and to my surprise there was a vegetable that I have never seen before I looked it up and it turns out it’s a Kohlrabi, apparently its part of the brassica family and the best thing is it is best eaten raw so I cropped a piece off, diced it and put it in my salad this evening and it was lovely, its crunchy and its like having a raw crouton  but this is what it looks like, looks like something out of space lol but it was actually very nice will try grating it next time.



Anyway this is the salad I made with the strange looking veg.


Friday was gym day and it is really becoming a habit and in this hot weather the aqua aerobics was a god send, also went and saw Tarzan at my £2.50 cinema and I really enjoyed it.

Saturday was another hot day and in Margate on a Saturday the beach is always packed, I passed the sea front on the way to the post office and by the time I got back it was so hot I did not feel like eating anything so, I did a lot of juicing, my first juice was 2 oranges, 1 grapefruit, 1 lime, and 1 pineapple, it was divine and it made over a pint of juice, that went in one go I have to say.  Here's how I made it:


After that I made a veg juice with celery, apple, cucumber, carrots, ginger and lime and I made enough to have 2 large cups so saved some for tomorrow.  Afterwards I went down stairs to watch the sun set, they are spectacular in Margate.



Tuesday 15 November 2016

DAY THIRTY TWO

DAY THIRTY TWO

Half of melon

Other half of melon blended made 2 pint glasses of melon juice

Sipping infused water with orange
    
                                                   
Tub of strawberries

Salad – gem lettuce with mix of cucumbers, plum tomatoes and green and black olives from yesterday

Dressing – basil pesto, basil, garlic, pine nuts, avocado, nutritional yeast, sea salt lemon, chilli flakes from yesterday

Smoothie – almond milk, banana  and agave nectar
Hand full of almonds

I am so upset, I didn’t get to go to the sauna as my period was still so heavy, I did some research and it turns out that the culprit might be too much fat in my diet, the nuts, and avocado all the dips with nuts in them, will have to wean myself off them for a while and see if it makes a difference, went to bed about 11pm and woke up in about 5am leaking everywhere (TMI I know), the warning should have been the tummy pain; when I get that it’s a sure sign to look out.

Monday 14 November 2016

DAY THIRTY ONE

DAY THIRTY ONE

Juice – celery, cucumber, carrots, beetroot, lime, ginger and apples, made enough for 2 saved from yesterday

Smoothie – spinach, bananas, pineapple, mango, papaya and raspberries from yesterday
Last of trail mix

4 peaches

Salad – bed of wild rocket and mix of cucumbers, plum tomatos and green and black olives
 


Dressing – basil pesto, basil, garlic, pine nuts, avocado, nutritional yeast, sea salt lemon (forgot lemon in the picture, chilli flakes (optional) used avocado instead of oil


                                         
2 large glasses of almond milk mixed with bananas and agave nectar

Had a really bad day period wise, I couldn’t do anything all day besides clean, make food and roll up in bed from period pain, not had it this bad in years, I really have reverted back to my teen years where periods were so painful, I could do nothing but lay curled up in a dark room all day, hope its not going there, but on the plus side (if there is one) my body is actually healing itself so I have to use that  as some sort of consolation, I have gone from no period in 2 years to period so strong, it is now going 5 days and counting, hope I can go sauna tomorrow but it is so heavy at the moment I am not holding out much hope.

I really enjoyed my food today and the dressing was to die for on the salad, I am looking for ways to get rid of oil so in the basil pesto I used a whole avocado instead of oil and it is to die for it is so creamy and with the added nutritional yeast it tastes like it’s got cheese in it. The basic recipe is basil, garlic, oil and salt, but I added the rest and substituted the oil for avocado.

I also enjoyed the almond milk smoothie as I added more banana and it was really thick and tasty, after 2 glasses though I was extra full and ended up visiting the loo twice in the night super annoying when you are on lol.

Sunday 13 November 2016

TWIST OUT - TALK AND UNTWIST


TWIST OUT - TALK AND UNTWIST


I decided  to talk and untwist my hair!  Let me know what you think of the end result.

DAY THIRTY

DAY THIRTY

Juice – celery, cucumber, carrots, beetroot, lime, ginger and apples, made enough for 2 saved half for tomorrow

Smoothie – spinach, bananas, pineapple, mango, papaya and raspberries

Whole galia melon

Cashews

2 bananas


Salad – lambs lettuce, mixed olives with chilli sauce, plum tomatoes, spring onion
Sipping lemon infused water though the day

2 pears
 
Red pepper hummus with veg


                                                                                     
Home-made trail mix – basil nuts, walnuts, hazel nuts, almonds, shredded coconut, raisons, dried cranberry
       
EXERCISE: Gym machines and weights, aqua aerobics

I woke up tired this morning but to be fair I went to sleep at 2am and woke up at 6.30, what is that all about? I went back to sleep and woke up at 10am, I felt I was in need of juice today so I did the usual but I need to switch it up a bit and try different juices so I downloaded some free e-books from kindle and will be experimenting.

My work out was great but seeing that I am on, my old symptoms have come back from when I was in my twenties, really heavy, clotting and stomach ache and its as regular as clockwork now dam who knew it would come back after not having a period in 2 years, mind you I hate periods but this could be a blessing in disguise?  You see my husband has no children even though I have 2 sons who have children themselves.  Is it possible I could still get pregnant in my 50th?  Don’t know how I would cope, I do feel a lot better than I did in years and I am a lot more active but is it possible?  I don’t want to think about that lol.

For some reason I am eating a lot more and I feel a sweet tooth coming on which I have not had since I started this journey is it the period? I guess so but the fruit is helping with that, the good news (even though you are not supposed to) is that I can eat fruit up to bed time and it would not have a dramatic effect on my digestion.  Although they do say that you should not each 4 hours before going to bed and not eat for 12 hours, that way you wake up alert and your body has time to repair and regenerate.  What I am doing as the moment though I am eating what and when I want as I believe as long as you stick to raw food and sleep when your body wants you to and you listen to your body you can’t go far wrong.

I really enjoyed my salad today and it one of my most simple ones, again is my body trying to tell me something?  I have a thing about olives and I guess its one of my guilty pleasures along with Aldi hummus which is not raw but there could be worse things I could be eating cooked, with the hummus I think it is just the chick peas themselves that is cooked.  Will have to investigate as whether I can sprout chick peas to make my own hummus but in the meantime will be indulging.

Thursday 10 November 2016

DAY TWENTY NINE

DAY TWENTY NINE

Shopping haul

                   


Smoothie - spring greens, bananas, blueberries made from yesterday

Salad – organic red lettuce, organic cos lettuce, cherry tomatoes, avocado, cucumber, red pepper

Salad dressing –1 clove of garlic, ½ lemon, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, 2 tbls olive oil, dash of sea salt and sprinkle of black pepper

                        


Tub of red grapes

Pistachios

Home-made trail mix – basil nuts, walnuts, hazel nuts, almonds, shredded coconut, raisins, dried cranberry

Coconut water

Got a delivery of wheat grass a whole kilo for £3 score lol, from what I have read I can use the current batch that I have grown three times and boy does it grow fast I  will put it in my juice tomorrow, didn’t make any today as I rang out of apples, just not ready for pure veg juice yet and secondly I was just plain lazy I could have used pears but I just was not feeling it. 

Went shopping today and found 100% maple syrup in Aldi and although it was meant to be a small shop I ended up spending £30.

Since I bought a 1 one day bus pass I thought I would go see a film and there is a cinema down the road where you can see any film for £2.50 (l love Kent lol), so I went and saw Absolutely Fabulous and it is a really funny film, if you are a fan of the series (which is on Netflix at the moment) then you will love the film.  That’s where I brought my trail mix and brought some coconut milk with me too and I really enjoyed it.

Although I didn’t do any exercise today I did a lot of walking – two and from bus stops, running to catch buses to go to cinema and according to my tracker, I did 6,000 steps today. Will be back in the gym tomorrow for weights and aqua.


Wednesday 9 November 2016

DAY TWENTY EIGHT


DAY TWENTY EIGHT

WEIGHT: 18st and 3lbs lost of 18lbs

Juice – left over from yesterday

Smoothie – spring greens, bananas, blueberries

Spiralizer cucumber with basil pesto, tomato and home grown sprouts

           
2 flat nectarines

Hand full of dates

Smoothies – almond milk, dates and frozen banana

Soaked almonds dipped in cacao and agave nectar then rolled in sesame seeds

Today was as blur day not much happening went to the gym and got weighed and I have lost a further 8lbs bringing my weight down to 18st and 3lbs which I am really happy about it seems that I am losing weight fast, that is a total loss of 181b that is 1st and 4lbs and it's not even a month yet.  Feeling tired today so I am going to have a early night must be the period thing not done it in a while forgot was it was like to be on, I thought them days were over but I guess it must have been the weight that stopped my periods and now I am losing it has come back dam it!  Was craving something really sweet today so hence the dates and the almonds in chocolate, might have to give in to temptation and make some nut balls or bars or something tomorrow!

VANITY PLANET OR CLINQUE FACIAL BRUSHES

VANITY PLANET OR CLINQUE FACIAL BRUSHES



 My inner product junkie is back check out VANITY PLANET OR CLINQUE FACIAL BRUSHES video!

I have been using my Clinque facial brush for years and love it but when I saw 70% off and they post to the UK I could not resist!  They both have their pros and cons so I will be testing them out over the next couple of weeks to see which one I will be taking to Jamaica with me.

Sunday 6 November 2016

SHOP, PACK, BOX AND SHOP TO JAMAICA!

SHOP, PACK, BOX AND SHOP TO JAMAICA!


I am off to Jamaica very soon and will be staying for a couple of months so I have shipped some food to Jamaica via a shipping company.  This video is all about what we got up to at the shipping company and how much it costs to ship!

Would love to know all about your shipping experience and how you did it as i have sent barrels in the past as with most people sending to Jamaica but have you thought how wasteful to do it that way is?  Think about it, the barrel is round so is a restriction already.  barrels are also more expensive and bulky which usually means you have to have it delivered and picked up when full adding to the cost.

The way i did it, flat pack boxes costing £6 (barrels start from around £36 with less space), can take the volume of 2 standard barrels.  Please note we got our boxes from another shipping company as the one we sent it with had smaller boxes.