Lesson #1: Mind Your Colon

I’ve been using Adya Clarity now for about 2 ½ months. I did the super shots once daily up until about 3 weeks ago, and have just been drinking the water. The past few days I’ve been back on the super shots, putting them in my green juice or just taking them alone. I admit I haven’t been great at getting in enough water after the shots, or in general. I’ve always struggled to drink enough water. I had been frustrated because at first it seemed to be helping with my digestive problems, then it sort of tapered off and after that my issues worsened. Since around Christmas I’ve had horrible gas, bloating, and some nausea. I felt hopeless and afraid. If this doesn’t help me, what will? On top of all that, the eczema patches started showing up again on my elbow and knees (I’d had nasty patches there last year that took many months and cleansing to clear up), and the eczema around my eyes began to flare up again to the point where it was very uncomfortable to wear makeup and the skin around my eyes was puffy, bright read, and scaly. My back broke out in painful pimples, which hasn’t happened since I was a teenager. Also, my muscle tension/pain/headaches have been much worse than usual. What’s worse, my breastfed toddler has developed a rash around his mouth which is scabbing over, and his urine has been rather foul smelling. I’ve been in a panic trying to figure this all out. When my daughter used to get a rash around her mouth it was a dairy allergy, but we don’t eat dairy or any common allergen causing foods. He had been eating small amounts of peanut butter, so I took him off of that, but he’s never reacted to it before. I feared he might be allergic to grapefruit, or citrus in general, because during the winter we eat a lot of that and I’ve been craving grapefruit and eating several per day (which after researching I found that it cleanses the liver and is anti-inflammatory so it helps with pain syndromes, go figure!).

One night, Coen was having trouble getting to sleep so we snuggled up on the couch, him watching Caillou and me reading articles on the laptop. I was reading some things written by Matt Monarch (from rawfoodworld.com) whose work always impresses me. I kept coming across his mentioning of the importance of colon cleansing (enemas and colon hydrotherapy sessions). This is nothing new to me. I know full-well the importance of washing out the colon when cleansing. When your body is releasing toxins and waste it gets dumped into your sewage system (colon) for elimination. You can ease the stress on your body, as well as the symptoms of detox, by flushing those toxins out with water. This method has been used for thousands of years. In fact, up until the past 50-60 years (before pharmaceuticals took over the healthcare system) even hospital rooms had equipment for colon flushing, as it was the first thing doctors did to facilitate healing. It was common knowledge that weather you had a headache, or a cold, or cancer, or whatever, the most important thing you could do was to clean out your colon. Somehow that knowledge has been lost to some extent in recent years, even to the point that people think of it as taboo and embarrassing. It’s quite unfortunate considering we need to be cleaning our colons now more than ever, with the ever increasing amount of flesh foods we eat and all the environmental toxins we take in. Now wonder we are losing so many people to colon cancer.

I wasn’t applying any of this to me at the time I was reading it. It wasn’t until the next day I began thinking, “hmm, skin breaking out… toxins trying to be released? Foul gas, bloating and nausea… yeast die off? Muscle pain and headaches… toxin release and yeast die off? Rashes… yeast and toxins? Adya… kills yeast and releases toxins!” I hadn’t thought of my Adya use as a cleanse and so I hadn’t treated it like one. The most perplexing thing was that I felt my digestion improving in that I know I’m absorbing nutrients better than I ever have because I haven’t required as much food lately. Normally I’m starving all the time and I eat about every hour, or more. But lately I noticed I can’t finish a whole grapefruit without being stuffed, in fact I can’t eat a large amount of anything, even vegetable juice. That’s not a bad thing, I’ve been waiting for this! I learned early on in my raw food journey that when you eat this pure, nutritionally dense food your require less of it. But for us the opposite seemed to be true, we eat nonstop and are always hungry. You can’t absorb nutrients through a yeast and mucus coated digestive tract, and if you aren’t absorbing enough nutrients your body will tell you it’s hungry so it can get in as much food as possible and absorb as many nutrients as it can. I was so confused realizing this, and yet having all this gas pain… it didn’t add up.

Time will tell if my theory is correct, if all these issues are symptoms of yeast die-off and toxin release, and if the Adya is doing positive work in my body. I’m off to do my first enema in many months. I wish I could do colon hydrotherapy, but the money just isn’t there, so hopefully the enemas will suffice. I will update in a week or so and let you know if I’ve seen any improvements in myself or my son. And also, I’m planning a digestive rest cleanse coming up in the next week or two, once I sort through my current issues. If you’re interested in learning about Adya, here’s a great place to see how its been working for other people: http://www.therawfoodworld.com/adyaclaritytestimonials.html

Three Weeks on Adya

***UPDATE*** Adya Clarity has recently been recalled by its primary seller, Matt Monarch. This is due to inaccurate labeling and fraudulent marketing by the producer of the product, Adya, Inc. To view Matt's official appology click here. For more info on what has been discovered about Adya Clarity and Adya, Inc., click here.

I started taking the supershots on Oct. 11^th (if you don’t know what I’m referring to, see the post just previous to this one). At that time my most troublesome physical symptoms were:

Frequent stomach pains

Digestive problems

Colitis

Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Eczema

Brain fog

Trouble concentrating

Exhaustion

Anxiety

Depression

OCD

Anger/Irritablity

Headaches

Muscle tension pain, esp shoulders and neck

Sweet cravings

Itchy dry skin

Dry scalp

Gas

Painful bloating

Hemorrhoids

Mood swings

Loose stools

Sinus troubles/post nasal drip

Excess mucus

Dizziness

Poor memory

Weak fingernails

Stomach fat

Persistent cough

Earaches (no Dr. could ever identify a cause)

Muscle weakness

Sensitivity to fragrances/chemicals

Trouble comprehending simple things

Sore throat

Heartburn

Chronic pain

Hypoglycemia

Food allergies/sensitivities

Gluten sensitivity

Nausea

Loss of appetite

Teeth pain

Unrestful sleep

Light sensitivity

Blurred vision

Cold and heat sensitivity

Low body temp

Low blood pressure

Tingling/numbness in extremities

Foot pain

Dry mouth and eyes

Difficulty swallowing

Skin discoloration

Tinnitus

Sensitivity to noise

Light-headedness

Fibromyalgia

Nail ridges

Jaw pain

Dark circles under eyes

Ingrown hairs

Dry, cracking heels

Rib pain

Poor night vision

Tonsil infections

A good 95% of these are common Candida symptoms, which is the reason I’m taking Adya. As I mentioned in a previous post I first heard about Adya when I saw a youtube video of Angela Stokes-Monarch talking about how she’d cured her own Candida.

I’m now 3.5 weeks in. For Angela it took about 6 weeks. After the 1^st week I’d lost 3 lbs (that’s a lot for a person my size, considering I’m 5’7” and it put me at 117lbs). I felt pretty good. I was as un-bloated in my midsection as I can remember ever having been in my life. Then… I bloated. I bloated good. I bloated so big I looked an easy 6 months pregnant and felt like my skin was going to rip open and my organs were going to come bursting out. My muscle pain increased. I went into a major brain fog. I had an eczema flare up, had an acne breakout. A bunch of bad tasting mucus settled in the back of my throat and my nose ran nonstop. I got moody… okay, maybe not moody, more like ferociously angry. I became more light-headed than usual. My blood sugar went super-loopy. I wanted to eat the whole world, especially if it was sweet or salty. And lastly, I started expelling some of the nastiest smelling gas I’ve ever had… frequently and uncontrollably. It’s safe to assume I wasn’t in any mood for going out. Of course, all of this also made my anxiety worse as I wondered what on earth was wrong with my body (again) and felt like there was no hope or help for me and I for sure was going to die. Then I got over my dumb. DUH. Yeast die-off symptoms, silly! It’s got to get worse before it can get better. My body is still dealing with eliminating all those toxins, but it has improved over the past day. I’m very much looking forward to seeing what the coming weeks will bring. One thing I know, the Adya is doing something. There is hope. And hope is a great thing!

Adya Clarity—It’s a Miracle!

***UPDATE*** Adya Clarity has recently been recalled by its primary seller, Matt Monarch. This is due to inaccurate labeling and fraudulent marketing by the producer of the product, Adya, Inc. To view Matt's official appology click here. For more info on what has been discovered about Adya Clarity and Adya, Inc., click here.

Here’s my (hopefully) easy to understand overview of what Adya is.

You know those streams in the mountains in China or Japan that are so mineral rich, the people who drink out of them live to be well over 100 years old? They are purified by magnetic sulfate minerals. That is what makes the water so life-giving. Adya Clarity is magnetic sulfate minerals derived from black mica. Basically, you add it to your water and it pulls (magnetizes) inorganic material (toxins, contaminates) out of the cells of the water, captures them and renders them harmless. It purifies the water in a way that no purifier you can buy can. Then, it takes the now shrunken water cells and fills them up with oxygen and minerals. In other words, it purifies water and then transforms it into (living) oxygenated mineral water. As a water purifier, it’s pretty darn amazing, but consider for a moment the fact that more than half of your body is composed of water. Your cells are filled with it and bathed in it. Here’s the miracle of Adya: You can take it in “supershots,” that is, once or twice a day (upon waking and in the afternoon, on an empty stomach). Mix a teaspoon of the Adya liquid with a few ounces of water. Drink it down, then during the next 2 hours take no food and drink 1 ltr (34 oz) or more of Adya purified water. The minerals go to work in your body, pulling out the toxins from your cells and filling the cells up with oxygen and minerals. Adya has been attributed to the healing of many dis-eases. I recently began taking it in hopes of curing Candida overgrowth, as Angela Monarch-Stokes did (watch her video here) (Here is another very informative video). I will be blogging about my experience in later posts. If you’re interested in trying Adya for yourself there are several places you can get it. I got mine from Matt and Angela’s website: Raw Food World.

Some benefits of Adya Clarity:

IN WATER

Makes water taste amazing

Removes:

Chlorine and fluoride

Pharmaceuticals that have entered the water supply (such as antibiotics, antidepressants, and veterinary drugs)

Chemicals, plastics, and solvents

Heavy metals (such as mercury, aluminum, and lead) and pathogens

Viruses, harmful bacteria, and parasites

IN YOUR BODY

Removes heavy metals

Relieves tension, stress, stiffness

Kills yeast

Kills parasites (yes, you do have them)

Improves digestion

Better sleep

Clear skin

Increased energy

Alleviates arthritis

Improves regularity

Maintains homeostasis (internal balance)

Detoxes the body

Cures mineral deficiencies

Hydrates deeply, at a cellular level

Weight loss

LOTS more (watch the videos above)!

OTHER USES

Bathe in Adya water

Use it in place of chlorine in your pool or hot tub

Add a supershot to your fresh vegetable juice to enhance the nutritional and cleansing benefits of the juice

Feed it to your house and garden plants

Put it in your pets water

Food That "Feels" Good

Recently I noticed another unexpected shift has occurred in the way I perceive the food that I eat. I was eating something one day and said to myself, with pleasure, “This feels really good!” I then stopped inside myself for a moment to consider the fact that I’d unintentionally replaced the usual word, “tastes,” with “feels.” This thought, came like revelation to me, has stuck with me ever since. As I’ve ventured farther along on my raw journey, I’ve begun to really taste food for the first time. I used to eat it either because I was bored or anxious, or in need of the comfort of “stuffing” my feelings… I don’t think I ever actually stopped to taste the food, smell the food, feel the texture of it in my mouth. As I’ve learned to do this I’ve discovered that almost all cooked foods do not taste good to me at all. I’ve spit out a mouthful of chocolate chips. I’ve sat down with a handful of potato chips, eaten two, scrunched up my face and returned the rest to the bag… I NEVER would have imagined myself doing these things! But really, if it doesn’t even taste good, AND it’s going to make me sick, why would I eat it? Thus far the only food that really tastes good cooked is lightly steamed vegetables, especially in a vegetarian soup, which I have little reserve eating on occasion (two or three times) during the winter. There are still smells that get to me… pizza and cinnamon rolls come to mind… but those foods don’t feel good… in fact the feel pretty darn terrible! As I’ve noticed that cooked foods don’t taste as great as they’re cracked up to be, I’ve also noticed that my enjoyment of food now comes more from the way a food feels in my body than from taste or comfort. Food isn’t really comforting at all anymore because I’m allowing my feelings to surface, looking at them for what they truly are, and putting a positive spin on them. I’m learning to be grateful for all of the suffering I’ve endured, because I wouldn’t be who I am without it, and because I have the God-given power to rise above it. Why hide from that? It’s okay to feel, it’s GOOD to feel, even unpleasant feelings. It’s all part of the human experience, allow yourself to really feel your feelings, live in them, and then say, “Thank you.” Unpleasant feelings don’t have to be negative! Then there’s the physical “feel good” of food. What I experienced that day was a feeling of free-flowing energy throughout my body, a harmony. A feeling that this food was becoming a part of me, and that it was created to be. I felt right with the world. My spirit rejoiced. What could be better than that?!! I would encourage you to experience your emotions and express gratitude for every one of them, to begin to slow down and really taste and feel your food, and to gravitate toward foods that “feel good” in a pure, clean, and joyful sense over foods that are comforting or that you feel taste good in a heavy, cumbersome, addictive sense. It can be done, give yourself some time and a whole lot of love!

Frustration and Hope: The Eternal Round

I am often upset by the fact that I am still limited by my body. Here I am home from Church again. I see people all around me, people I’ve mentored and other raw-foodests, who can make the smallest changes and see amazing results. I’m a year in to this and still rather ill. Somehow I’ve hung onto this wild hope that, in time, my body will heal. I’ve been carried this far on the wings of faith. Today’s issue: Several years ago, when I was pregnant with my second child, when I drank water I could hear and feel bubbling just under my left rib cage. With my third pregnancy it came back, and this time when I would turn to the left I would feel something “catch” under my ribs. I had one of my interns at my husband’s school palpate my abdomen and she said everything felt fine. Following that pregnancy I’ve had a lot of painful gas up the side of my descending colon and, most recently, sharp stabbing pain under the rib (where the transcending and descending colon meet) that goes through into my back. When it happens I go down to the floor. I can’t stand and I can barely inhale, so I take tiny, short, sharp breaths. It usually happens after a bowel movement, and then I’ll often have another (and maybe even another) and that will ease the pain. When it happened several days ago I did an enema and that helped, but I can’t do enemas most of the time because I’m alone with 3 small children. It terrifies me that this problem is getting worse. Lately I’ve pondered seeing an M.D., worrying that I have colon cancer or some such thing. I’m pretty freaked out. I’m still struggling to go 100% raw with hypoglycemia. The past 2 days I drank my first green juices. I want so badly to do the 92-day juice feast, but even the modified version (where you also consume green smoothies and raw soups with blended avocado) worries me. First of all because I have yet to met a raw soup I could swallow, nor a blended avocado for that matter. Second, because I tried all green smoothies for a day and had a terrible hypoglycemic reaction. I haven’t felt a big difference with the green juice I’ve drank so far, but I’ve only been drinking 1 qt a day. A regular juice feast calls for 6 qts a day, and a modified feast 4 qts. I do feel very unbalanced and I know my body is screaming for more greens (I currently consume about 2 heads of lettuce per day, one of them blended and one as a salad). I also feel an intense need for exercise, but I still am clueless as to how to do that with 3 children. I’ve been SOOOO tired lately. I’ve been falling asleep sitting up during the day everyday, normally I wouldn’t even sit down during the day in the first place. I’m scared that if I try to exercise I’ll black out or something. I’ve always been afraid of the sensations that come along with a workout. Once my heart starts pounding, I panic. As a result I’m super weak and tired and have a lot of pain in my body. I do, however, have one good thing to report! The swelling in my feet has gone down a ton and my eczema has DRASTICALLY improved, like, I can wear eye makeup now and there are no traces of it on my elbows or knees. So… that should mean my digestion is improving… so why the stabbing gas pains?

Goals: Lately I’ve been starting the day off with several Master Cleanse drinks (2 TBS fresh lemon juice, 2 TBS maple syrup, dash of cayenne pepper, and 8 oz. water). I follow that with a green juice and (if my blood sugar will allow it) follow that with a green smoothie. The idea (my idea) is to extend my night fast and give my digestive tract as much rest as possible. I’d like to work it up in a full day of nothing but liquids. I’ve also been working the sprouted grain bread out of my day. So the one big problem that is still in the way of 100% raw is that dang creamy French salad dressing. I still cannot find a raw dressing I can even tolerate, much less enjoy, and greens without dressing, even when covered with other veggies, are just plain chokey and dry. But really, in the average day, my only issues left are sprouted bread, organic unsalted peanut butter, and creamy French dressing. I’ve got my vices down to three!

My most troubling symptoms currently:

Exhaustion

Weakness

Muscle tension pain and headaches

Abdominal pain, gas, nausea

Hypoglycemia

To me it all points to weak digestion and the liver and gall bladder troubles that come along with it. The cure for weak digestion is feasting on (mostly) green juices, but that can’t be done with severe hypoglycemia… sigh.

Cleanse Results!

From the before and after photos you can see that I lost 5 lbs. and several inches. Before the cleanse my abdomen looked very swollen and bloated and now looks closer to my true body. I’ve still got a fat pad on the front and some on the sides, but it is improving. If you’re appaled by the condition of my skin you might see www.theshapeofamother.com, that’s just what happens to most of us when our skin streches out to accommodate babies. I was very unsure as to weather or not I should post these because of how awkwardly shaped I am and because of the extra skin, but in the end I’m about being real. I think that’s the only way you can every truly help anyone, by being relatable and honest, and that is the purpose in this blog in the first place. That is the reason I called it “Raw Misadventures” because it isn’t all daisies and rainbows. In fact, we don’t get daisies and rainbows without storms! I have to admit another reason I’m posting these is that people keep telling me I don’t have more to lose or that its all just skin. I can grab handfuls of fat. I DO have weight left to lose!

Aside from the obvious improvement in my appearance I also experienced some improvements in several of the health issues that we’re really bothering me. Here they are:

Eczema: This one was a serious problem, and only got worse toward the middle of my cleanse. There was a point where I was almost in tears, feeling like I was about to lose my mind from the itching and burning all the way around my eyes. It went from my eyebrows all the way down into the underside of my eyelids. It covered my eyelid and went around, affecting the inner and outer corners of my eyes and underneath my eyes. It was a bright red-orange burning, itching mess. I didn’t wear makeup at all, just a little mascara to church the Sunday during my cleanse. Kolby thought I was crying. My eyes were so squinty and red and I could barely see. It did feel like it does after a good cry. In the end I’ve got just a tiny remnant on each eyelid and almost no itching. The patch on my elbow is almost gone, you can feel a little bumpy texture in a tiny spot but cannot see it. My knees are almost completely healed as well. The thick itchy rash is gone and just a little pink coloring with some dry skin is left. I’ve still got a small patch on my ear.

Heel Calluses: I used to have thick calluses on the heels of my feet that would crack and peel and I’d get fissures that would catch on carpet and sheets. My heels are now the softest they’ve been since the calluses started, 13 years ago. There is just a small spot on each heel.

Hypoglycemia: I was scared to cleanse because of my hypoglycemic trap, but I knew my digestive issues were the cause, so I went forward with faith. At no point did I have ANY hypoglycemic, or hyperglycemic, episodes. Nor have I since, even after all the junk I ate over the weekend. This is my miracle. I was in such despair, feeling trapped in this mess in my body. I was ruled by my blood sugar, constantly trying to regulate it and not knowing where to turn for help. I was terrified. But not anymore!

Muscle Tension/Pain: Was improved some. It’s hard to gauge because some days are harder than others and have always been. I had some severe pain in my neck, jaw, and ear in the middle of my cleanse but have been doing well since, just some tension.

Cleanse: Conclusion

So I completed my last 2 post cleanse days, then we had family come into town for Juelie’s baptism so I’m just now getting to my blog. Overall my cleanse went really well. I did finally get down a whole gallbladder flush drink, though I’ve yet to see any stones. With each cleanse comes a new resolve to take my health to another level. Here is what I’m taking (or continuing on) from this cleanse.

1 100% raw day per week
Once I’ve mastered that I will move up to 2 days per week, and so forth until I’m up to a whole week. Its all about making and achieving goals!

1 TBS G.I. Gel twice per day
I still have half a jar left, so I will keep that up until it’s gone.

2 L.B.T. caps at bedtime, until they’re gone

1-2 cups of tea per day
I’ve got a ton of tea left and it really helped me to eat less and get more water in. I also feel that it is very cleansing and soothing to my digestive tract.

2-32 oz green smoothies per day with Sun Is Shining
I loved having a second green smoothie for the afternoon when I’m feeling “snackish” and tend to get tired. I just make a double in the morning and keep half for later so its quick and easy and I’m more likely to grab that than tortilla chips (even though I still REALLY want the tortilla chips!) I also was feeling before my cleanse that my body needed more greens to balance all the fruit I eat and I feel great now, plus this has been my answer for not needing to eat the Ezekiel bread (I was eating 4-6 slices per day). Other than the Ezeikel bun I had with my Boca burger at Juelie’s party I have had no bread since the start of my cleanse (over 2 weeks).

2 oz Isagenix Cleanse for Life drink first thing in the morning
I was doing this before and took a break from it during my cleanse

Chromium Polynicotinate
I’ve read about it curing hypoglycemia and suppressing appetite. It really does seem to be helping.

Enemas (2-3 per week)
I’d really like to continue doing them daily, but it just isn’t possible with Kolby rarely here to watch the kids.

Exercise
I didn’t get much during my cleanse, other than putting in the garden and a few walks. I plan to try and see if Coen will play downstairs while I use the elliptical. Also a friend of mine offered to accompany me to the gym at the Y (I’m TERRIFEID of gyms and can’t go alone) and we’ll see if we can get Coen to stay in the childcare room without me (he’s pretty clingy). I’m really trying to get out for walks more, but it is hard with 3 kids alone and they all want to run. I feel bad not taking the dog but I can’t handle them all. I don’t get much exercise going baby speed, but at least its movement and fresh air. I also need to do ab work, not sure how I’m going to go about that yet.

I ate WAY too much this weekend! Between Friday and Monday I ate 3 boca burgers (1 with a sprouted grain bun), some gluten-free crackers, and I don’t know how many handfuls of chips (pita and potato). I didn’t poo from Friday until Monday afternoon. I felt like my whole center was full of bricks and I was soooo groggy. I gained 2 pounds over the weekend. I’m hoping to get that off with a 100% raw day today, lots of green smoothies, fruit, and fiber. But I’m craving those dang chips and we’ve got a cupboard full of them and I can’t throw them out because Kolby wants them!!!

Will be posting before and after pics and measurements as soon as/if I can find the little scrap piece of paper I wrote my before measurements on…

End of Cleanse Day 6

Just Plain Nutty Bars

Big news! I dropped into the one-teens for the first time in my life this morning!!!! 119 lbs. That is amazing! So I have one more cleanse day left, followed by 2 post-cleanse days to ease me back into the real world. Today was insanely busy, exhausting, and frustrating. And I was tired. The boys and the dog have been waking me up constantly all week and drinking so much water I have to get up like every hour to pee as well. Plus, I’m up until about 11:30 getting the last of my cleansing stuff down. I’m just not able to function unless I’m ASLEEP by 10:30, probably because I get woken up so much, and I need to sleep until at least 7 am. I haven’t had a single full night of sleep in 4 ½ years. The D.C.s at Kolby’s school have told me that has a lot to do with my pain levels. I don’t get enough sleep to make the hormones I need to make the natural pain relievers we all have. So someone who actually sleeps is numb to the feelings of the body constantly breaking down and rebuilding itself, but I am not so much. Lack of sleep also aggravates fibromyalgia. But what can I do? Drug the kids? Riiiiiight. If I were going to do that I wouldn’t have refused meds during childbirth! So anyway, today Kolby spent outside building a HUGE compost bin, I’m talking 18 ft long, 4 feet wide and 4 ft high. HUGE. The vegetables will be happy, and happy veggies make happy bodies. I was inside cleaning, as I always am when we have people for dinner. Last night we had the missionaries over. I LOVE having dinners with people, but more than one a week tears me apart. Combined with the stress of trying to get everything together for Juelie’s party and for having family in town this weekend the stress is just way to high for me to be a happy, or nice, person. There are so many tiny details and if I miss just one the whole thing will come crashing down. Little things like, remember to take the sprouted buns out of the freezer the day before, and planning cooked and raw meals for everyone, plus the party food. I have to make everything for the party on Friday and I have NO CLUE how all the food, plus all the food we need to stock up on for everyone who will be here during the weekend, is going to fit in the fridge! So Friday is going to be the craziest day ever, with people coming into town and cleaning and food prep all day. Then Saturday morning I need to decorate, clean some more, and get ready for the baptism. And manage to keep my sanity so I can actually feel the Spirit. Lol

I didn’t make the best possible choices at dinner, I did have some basmati and wild rice, steamed veggies, and sugary, cooked, bottled salad dressing. It always seems to go that way when we have people over. I can’t come up with something good enough that the kids and I don’t end up feeling deprived, so I make the healthiest cooked parts of the meals that I can and we eat it with salad and digestive enzymes. I really don’t like the clogged feeling, or the fact that then the kids get hooked and start begging me for “bad” food all day long.

Today I consumed:
7:45 G.I. Gel, Herb Tinctures
8:00-9:00 Spring Tea
9:15-9:45 32 oz green smoothie
10:30 apple
11:45 3 orange slices, 1 cantalope slice
12:00-2:00 Namaste Tea
12:15 banana
1:00 raisins
2:00 grapes
3:00 G.I. Gel, Herb Tinctures
3:45 4 orange slices
4:00-4:30 Spring Tea
4:30-6:30 20 oz green smoothie
5:45 basmati rice medley with cooked and raw vegetables
bok choy (steamed) with garlic ginger sauce
green salad with French dressing (bottled/cooked)
Just Plain Nutty Bar (recipe below)
9:30 red grapefruit
10:30 G.I. Gel, Herb Tinctures, L.B.T. Caps
10:30-10:45 Namaste Tea

Today’s recipe:

Just Plain Nutty Bars
I adapted this recipe from a random one I found online.

1 cup raw almond butter
¼ cup wheat germ
¼ cup flax seeds, ground
¼ cup pecans, ground
4-5 medjool dates
pinch of sea salt (I used Himalayan), to taste
squirt of raw agave (optional, to taste)
sprinkle of cinnamon (optional, to taste)

Process all ingredients in a food processor or high speed blender. Shape into bars and dehydrate several hours. Serve warm or refrigerate. They are soft and crumbly but harden a bit when refrigerated, but they are delicious warm! These would be out of this world if made with raw, aphalatoxin-free peanut butter (order from http://www.sunfood.com/). You could do ½ c. almond butter, ½ c. peanut butter, or all peanut butter but it may be too soft.

Makes 8 bars.

End of Cleanse Day 5

I can’t believe I’m already on day 5! I’m sad that I’m nearing the end of this cleanse, I want it to go on forever. Cleansing is wonderful. It transforms you in all ways. It allows you to reach new spiritual heights and opens your heart and your mind. Cleansing clears away all clutter and allows a new clarity. I wish I could remember, or had time to journal, all of the spiritual realizations I have had on this cleanse. It’s been a wonderful experience, I look forward to many more cleanses.

I haven’t yet had an opportunity to do ANY of the exercises I’d planned on. I’m really bummed about that because exercise pumps the lymphatic system and that is the means by which toxins are eliminated. I know I could be helping my body along, I just can’t figure out what to do with my kids. Kolby is either at work or working around the house trying to get all the stuff done that builds up during the trimester, so just like when school is going on he can’t help out too much. We are putting in our new garden though, so I did get some exercise pulling up sod chunks today, and some fresh air, so that’s good.

Tonight I made ½ dose of gall bladder flush and got it down without much difficulty, I did add maple syrup to it to balance the sour. It tasted bad, but I can handle that, the issue last time was how it felt like it was attacking my mouth. I couldn’t just hold my breath and guzzle it because of what it did to my mouth. I know the next time I will be able to do a full dose. I plan to do 1-2 per week for several months after this cleanse as well.

I’m sure no one wants to hear this, but I’m going to say it anyway, because I LOVE colon health. It fascinates me. Bowel movements and tongues. They tell you SO much about what is going on inside your body, and I love analyzing them. A good bowel movement makes my day. That said, the enemas I’ve been doing are getting better and better. It’s like with each one I’m able to dig deeper into the mess and haul out more and more garbage. So check this out. This morning when I woke up I weighed 121.4 lbs. (after I peed, of course). I went straight to the kitchen and drank my G.I. Gel with 16 oz of water. Then I went and did 3 rounds of enema. It went so well I just had to weigh myself after, out of curiosity. Even with 16 oz of fluid and fiber gel in me, my weight after the enema was 120.0 lbs! Isn’t that amazing?!! Well, I think so! But hey, I think it’s amazing I could even BE 120 lbs! LOL I started out my weightloss journey thinking my ideal weight would be 135-140. I had NO CLUE how small my frame is, what a fantastic discovery!

Oh, and I was dumb today. I realized that the spoon I’ve been using all this time for my G.I. Gel is a teaspoon, NOT a tablespoon. Oops! So I could have been eliminating toxins better all this time, but I think I’m doing great, so I’ll just pack up my tablespoon and move forward : )
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the ingredients I needed for a new recipe today. We were out running errands to I just had to throw something together when I got home. But, there’s something to be learned from that… what do you do in a pinch? Well, I did a green salad with veggies, celery sticks with raw almond butter, and cantaloupe slices. The kids LOVED it, and it was easy, tasty, filling, and nutritious. Maybe not gourmet, but with smiles all around the table, who can complain?

End of Cleanse Day 4

Sunburger on Ezeikiel Bread (minus the crust)

My jaw and neck are a slight bit better today. Yesterday was hard only because of the pain, otherwise nothing really remarkable. I have been a little irritable lately… or maybe the whole rest of the world is just being more annoying than usual… or maybe its because this week is going to be insane trying to prepare to have family in town and throw a huge baptism/birthday part for Juels on Saturday, it will by far be the biggest party we’ve ever had at our house (40+ guests so far). AND I just check weather.com and saw that we’re supposed to have scattered thunderstorms all day. Its supposed to be an outdoor garden party and there’s no way we can fit 40 people in our tiny house, so pray for sun!!!

I’m having some trouble with the recipes I’d planned for this cleanse because Whole Foods was out of buckwheat groats, which I needed for several recipes and now my schedule is all messed up. I had to plan carefully because a lot of things need to be in the dehydrator for a day or more so I had to schedule the dehydrator for certain meals. I’m not really sure what I’m going to do now.

Here’s what I consumed today:
9:00 G.I. Gel, Herb Tinctures
9:30-10.30 32 oz green smoothie
3:30 G.I. Gel, Herb Tinctures
1:00 almonds
1:30 12 strawberries
1:45 banana
1:45-3:15 Spring Tea
2:30 raisins, 1 small sunflower/dried fruit bar
3:30 3 orange slices
4:30 32 oz green smoothie
6:00 green salad, sunburger (recipe below) on ½ slice Ezekiel bread topped with lettuce, 1 stuffed mushroom
8:00 banana
8:45-9:15 Spring Tea
10:15 2 grapefuits
11:15 G.I. Gel, Herb Tinctures, L.B.T. Caps


Sunburgers

By Ani Phyo, Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen (http://www.aniphyo.com/)

2 stalks celery, chopped (about ¾ cup)
¼ cup yellow onion, chopped
½ cup red bell pepper, chopped
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp oregano, fresh or dried
1 cup sunflower seeds, ground
½ cup flax seeds, ground
½ cup filtered water

To make burgers, put all the ingredients in a bowl, adding the water last. Mix well. Form into balls and flatten into patties. If you’d like a firmer patty, dehydrate the burgers for 3 hours at 104 degrees and serve warm. Top burgers with sliced tomato and lettuce, and serve with your favorite raw bread and condiments.

My note: This is the 3rd time I’ve made these. The flavor is delicious, but I swore I’d never make them again because the texture, even after dehydrating 3-4 hours, is like canned dog food. I decided to give it one last try and dehydrate them longer to see if I could get them more the texture of a meat burger. I had them in the dehydrator 9 hours and they were WONDERFUL! Next time I think I may even go another 2-3 hours. My dehydrator tends to take longer than recipes say it should, so yours may be different as well. Just leave them in, flipping every few hours, until they’re to your liking. Enjoy!