I am warming more to the doctor who wrote the Wheat Belly book as I work my way through the book. Yesterday I said that he seemed to think it ok to eat animal foods but in subsequent chapters he does talk about the ph of the body and how vegetables are alkalizing and animal foods are acidifying, and an acidic body encourages health problems. So I feel more confident that when he gives his patients the suggestion to try four weeks without wheat, he is also telling them to eat more vegetables. Except, of course, for those “healthy whole grains” which are apparently not so healthy.

I have enjoyed two more great smoothies today. This morning’s was a more classic smoothie with banana and almond butter and spinach and stuff, this evening’s was more of a thick juice with lettuce, cucumber, pear, mango, orange and frozen prune plums.

In between I was visiting with a friend today and took along some energy balls – once again, a new experiment which turned out well. They have a cup of almonds, blitzed in the food processor, to which I added a quarter cup of almond butter, half a cup of raisins, 8 medjool dates, 2 tblsp raw cacao powder, 1 tblsp maple syrup, 1 tblsp grated ginger root, and blitzed again. I rolled the small balls of mixture in more cacao powder. Mmmm, chocolate health food, and actually better than the Bliss Balls that I was inspired by.

My friend had made fresh juice which she shared and it was really good. Orange, apple and carrot juice, with which she blended kale and parsley.

So, a good day’s eating. Feeling great!

I’m going in to my fourth week mostly eating raw. I said at the outset I’d allow myself to “cheat” on weekends and that has helped me to stay on the wagon during the week, except for one night last week when the family came together at the end of a busy day and I’d made a big pot of soup in the morning so that dinner wouldn’t be really late. It was really good soup and I had some and it was very satisfying.

However the past weekend has once again shown me that a little more self-discipline would be great. I had some more soup. A few tortilla chips. A small bar of chocolate. A couple of slices of toast with melted Daiya on top. Yes, they tasted good for a few minutes, but once in my body things were not so pleasant. I regretted choosing those foods afterwards and today I was committed to more smoothies/juices.

Breakfast was mid-morning and the smoothie contained

Frozen blueberries
Banana
Water
Spinach
An orange
A grapefruit
Scoop of Barleans Greens

Lunch was mid-afternoon and I had

Bananas
Almond butter
Water
Spinach
Frozen apricot and plums
Barleans

A little more calorific and satisfying with the nut butter in it.

Dinner

No frozen fruit – more of a Vitamix juice
Apples
Carrot
Celery
Lettuce
Spinach
Grapefruit
Plum

While I was cooking for the rest of the family, I had some cucumber and carrots.

My aim is to take the cleansing and weight loss to the next level.

I’m reading the Wheat Belly book right now and am not surprised about many of the conclusions that the author comes to. I’ve long known that eating bread makes me sleepy and heavy and bloated. He says that today’s wheat is nothing like the grain of old, and that it is an addictive substance that causes many health problems, including big bellies and man boobs (those are called Moobs around here)! I don’t agree with all of his recommendations to his patients, though, as he says they can eat plenty of animal products as long as they stay off the grains. It would serve them better to go over to a plant-based diet and avoid all the artery-clogging effects of eating meat and cheese. In my not-so-humble opinion 😉

It’s been a beautiful sunny day today, though the air never completely lost its coolness. The sun is just peeking in my window, shining over the top of the mountain and through the neighbour’s tree branches. I love this time of day – if you watch the sun disappear you can almost feel the earth turning.

I was so busy with housework yesterday (including putting away the winter boots and sleds and getting out my summer clothes) that I was able to avoid boredom eating and only eat when I really needed to. That’s one of my main challenges – home a lot, close to the kitchen, too easy to grab food.

I had a raw smoothie at noon and a big salad at 5pm plus a few almonds, and I was satisfied. Felt so good and energetic. Went to bed early with a detox headache, which is normal, but slept fitfully. Up earlier than usual today and looking forward to a hike with friends in the sunshine.

Breakfast is Vitamix juice. In other words, all the fibre of the fruit is in there – grapefruit, orange, apple, pineapple – blitzed. It’s very good!

I’m posting from my iMac today so I can type way faster than on my iPad so I can say more!!!

And I can hit Command + and get a nice big font so I don’t need my reading glasses 🙂

As usual, Spring is here and is motivating me to do something about my body and the layers of fat underneath the layers of winter clothes. We have had beautiful weather here this week, officially 16 or 17 degrees but more like 20 in the sunshine. And of course one’s thoughts turn to beach weather and swimming in the lake and maybe fitting better into one’s clothes.

“They” say that after a certain age (and I DID turn 50 last year) one has to choose between one’s face and one’s body. What that means is that if you’re skinny, you may look older and wrinklier because there’s no fat underneath the skin to pad out the wrinkles. If you’re plumper, then in theory your face is less wrinkly. Hell, I don’t really care about wrinkles or a few extra pounds, and I’m totally embracing my numerous grey hairs these days. But I do like feeling energetic rather than sluggish and out of breath, and I dislike the feeling of the roll of fat around my midriff.

I need to keep myself accountable, and to that end I posted a status on Facebook the other day to say I was going 100% raw from Monday. Asked if any of my friends would like to join me so we could support each other. Two said Yes! Ten years ago, when I did the raw thing for about six months, I measured myself, weighed myself, and got quite obsessed with every quarter of an inch (I still remember a sarcastic comeback from an acquaintance). This time, I ain’t doing numbers. I put on a fairly presentable set of black underwear and asked Tai Chi Man to take photos with my iPad, full length front, back, sides and a close up of my face. Thought it would scare me into losing weight, though actually I don’t look as bad as I thought! If I could only change one thing physically, it would be the lumpy cellulite-y legs – cos really, curvy is fine, I just don’t like the way the cellulite casts shadows when in the sunlight, ha ha…sob.

I certainly won’t be posting the photos here, but I have dragged them on to my computer desktop so that if I falter I can refer to them and think…..raw food….raw food….cleanse, cleanse, cleanse.

I am going to allow myself to “cheat” on weekends, if I feel the need. Because sometimes all you need is the knowledge that you can have something “later” that keeps you on the straight and narrow.

Happy Easter, happy Springtime, and healthy eating to you all.