A new Fresh Blessing is on the way.  My daughter Kassi will bring a child into the world sometime in September.  This past couple of weeks I have been away from posting, getting things ready for Kassi & Paul to come visit us.  Hustling and bustling about, hoping to make her first trip to our home here in Louisiana something she’ll want to repeat again soon.  I made her favorite meals and we played board games until the wee hours of the mornings.  Of course, I couldn’t resist breaking Paul in with a great green smoothie.  He’s a good sport! 

And yes, this announcement means that she’s making me a grandma!  Again!  Our first Grandbaby was born to our eldest son & his lovely wife this past year– that’s him at the top of the post, Griffen is now 9 months old! 

I feel so refreshed from this time of fellowship.  I have a completely rejuvenated outlook on life.  What a fresh blessing.   I hadn’t realised that Fun & Recreation was lacking in my life!

Since they went home I have begun every morning with a master cleanse drink.   This has easily replaced my morning cuppa and is so much better for me!  It’s like a morning gift to myself…  I’m still having my one cup of coffee, but not until much later in the day and I’ve already switched to decaf with the intention of eliminating it totally within the next couple of weeks.  My adrenal glands will thank me.

When doing the rawfood diet, I tend to enjoy eating simply.  One of my favorite breakfasts is simply cut up apple with chopped pecans or brazil nuts, raisins and cinnamon.  I usually have a green smoothie or two per day and a couple of small snacks.   There are some of my favorite easy recipes here, and tons of great recipes over at my friend’s site, Rawmazing.

What gift will you give yourself this week? 

So much for my first week back to raw.  Sheesh.  I look back over the week and can only say, “Wow”.

I started off like gangbusters feeling great and with 4 lbs lost by the second day!  Then my monthly visit stopped by… with the problems I’ve been having in this arena… it was not good.  Four days later I am finally feeling like a human being with a little motivation to start picking up those pieces again!  It’s kind of a catch 22 because the symptoms & problems I mentioned before have come back because of my diet change (going back to cooked/ comfort foods), yet, I have a <b>very</b> difficult time getting the motivation to eat right cranked up when I’m in pain.

Enough of that.  Let’s just say, I’m back, again.

I’m feeling better today and am taking advantage of that to post here as well as prepare for my successful transition back to raw!

I am down one pound, which is a miracle considering the junk I ate these last few days.  I did have something raw each day though, whether a smoothie or nice salad.  That probably helped me!  This week will be much better.  Honestly, if I’d have remembered that Auntie Flo was coming for a visit this week I would likely have waited to put up the post until next week!

Regardless, here I am and here we go!

I believe that when I have been eating high raw as a lifestyle again for a few weeks that most of these symptoms will once again be gone.  Looking forward to that vibrant health again!

Blessings,
Joanna

p.s. Thank you so much all of you that responded to last week’s post.  Your encouragement and comments are so helpful

As a side note on the psychology of raw… I’ve come to realization this week, that I consciously chose the heavy foods that I ate as a ‘barrier’ of sorts to get me through the hard days, as opposed to doing it subconsciously in the past.  The end result remained the same, I suppose, but on some level I am happy that I was aware of what I was doing.  I feel it will come in handy.

I have re-developed many symptoms that had been eliminated with my high-raw-vegan diet, such as:

• arthritis
• PMS symptoms
• headaches
• weight gain (20 lbs!)
• lack of motivation
• brain fog
• Aging in appearance! (Seriously!  Prior to this Holiday season people would often ask my daughter and I if we were sisters!  Now– nope.)

——–>

Evidently not.   My experiment has failed miserably on all frontiers it seems.   I suppose I could try to find justification in the fact that some of our best family memories are from sitting around the dinner table, or that holiday baking is one of my favorite family traditions even from childhood.

The truth is, that once I ventured off of my high energy foods, once I cooked them, they sucked me in like a black hole.  Slowly over the past months I have moved from nourishing myself to gnoshing.

And I am paying the price…

Does my family appreciate this?  No!  They still want to eat what they want… when they want it.  They are adults (or nearly) with very strong opinions of their own.  They also don’t appreciate my general demise– they want me to be my healthy, happy, crazy self.  Would I  love for them to want to eat healthy?  Of course!

What I’ve discovered though, through this experiment is:

• They have to want to.
  

I must use the oxygen mask theory:

Take care of myself so that I’ll be around to take care of those around me.

• The buck stops here.

I’m feeling like it’s gonna be a bit of work to get my lifestyle pulled back together– I can hardly believe how far off course I’ve drifted in this short time, but I want it all back!   All the:

• energy,
  
• clarity and
  
• vibrant health
  

It’s never too late to improve my diet and health.

• I am hereby setting my intentions to get back to rawfoods, exercise and inspiration.
  
• I will be taking photos of myself weekly– I know how quickly rawfood makes a difference in my appearance and energy levels.
  
• I will weigh once a week.
  

This is a personal journey, but I invite you to come along for the ride and see what happens or run alongside and cheer me on.  Even better yet, join me on this path toward excellent health!

Many Blessings,

Joanna Rawvelous

*rawfood diet:  Fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.  Ideally organic and locally grown.  Not cooked.