Raw Cauliflower Popcorn #40

Yea, so about those 366 days...

In God's infinite knowledge this is a Leap Year. Why is it a Leap Year? Because I can still get in 365 days and still get to participate in the Karamu feast that we are having on January 1 for Kwanzaa. I will be starting on the 2nd although I will be taking a laxative tea that night and an enema the next morning.

Anywhoo, just thought I'd take a moment of honesty with you all.

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Vitamix Blender

First of all I would like to wish you all Heri za Kwanzaa (Happy Kwanzaa)!!! Habari Gani? Umoja!!!

Just wanted to drop in with a quickie. I used my Vitamix for the first time today and honey, that thang is tha troof!!! OMG!!! I love it!!! Of course I'll do more on it later, but I made carrot apple smoothies with cinnamon and my husband had cayenne in his. They were delish and immediately caused a bowel movement. TMI? Well too bad because that's part of good health! lol

6 days 'til 366

Hi family!!! I am so excited about starting my 366 days to health. Now, I will warn you in advance, if you aren't already aware, I am not the most consistent person so this is going to be a BIG lesson in discipline. I am going to make my best effort to apply and try everything I know about health to my own life.

Like many of you I have completely over done it and thrown caution to the wind this holiday season. I have even been eating meat *gasp* and yes I enjoyed it. The results of my negative dietary turn have been as follows:

• Weight gain
• Sluggishness
• Mucus build-up
• Coated tongue
• Stinky poop
• Constipation
• Skin Eruptions
• Headaches
• Painful Periods
• Longer Periods
• Indigestion
• Gas
• Bloating

Although I don't push other people to be vegan I know that my body functions MUCH better when I am a well balanced vegan. The reason I was able to notice all of the symptoms listed above is because they went away on a vegan diet.

My change will start with a cleanse. I'm thinking MC because it is the best for getting fast results. Then I want to move on to a combination of smoothies, juices, teas, and of course water. BTW, my husband bought me a Vitamix blender which I am SO excited about. It comes with a ton of recipes that are SUPER simple. I am SO excited about feeling better. I am also going to add exercise back into my day EVERY day in some way...well that's my goal. I want a rebounder too. They look SO fun.

I will be uploading some vids, pictures, measurements, and updates on how my health is improving.

Yoga for Your Cycle

Fell off...again

Here's the story/excuse. Our children have been involved in this wonderful 10 week program and between the 2 of them they have been taking 3 classes. One of the classes was an acting class. My son LOVES to be seen, thrives off of attention, and has no concept of what it means to be embarrassed. My daughter likes to be seen on her own terms, likes getting attention in familiar settings, and is easily embarrassed. Somehow in this play my son ends up with a non-speaking part and my daughter with a speaking role. He was a munchkin from Munchkin Land and she played the OZ!!! What is the world?! When I found out I went with it. They've seen The Wiz, but never the Wizard of Oz, but they are similar enough that my daughter knew that she had a pretty major role. Last night as we sat in the pews and watched the displays from the other classes my heart began to ache for my daughter. I watched my dichotomous children as one smiled endlessly while the other fought back tears. I wanted to save her. I wanted to sit on the front row and rock her, but I knew that my hug would release a river of tears. Tonight would have to be the night that she learned what kind of women she is birthed from. I, for once, wouldn't be her savior. Well the first time she had to go on stage was for her photography class. To my surprise they had to stand up and read from a card about the various type of photography they'd learned about. Her voice and articulation were AMAZING!!! As of late we have had to ask her to stop mumbling so I was in a state of pure bliss. Not to mention, this child is gorgeous. Beauty AND brains? Um...yea...that's how we grow 'em in our family. Thank ya kindly. Anyway, when she sat down she went back into panic mode and I went back into savior mode. We both fought our respective battles in silence. The play began and when her part came I kept sending her "you-can-do-this-because-you-come-from-strong-women-and-3-of-us-are-here-to-support-you" vibes. Her part began behind a curtain because as you recall The Oz is hidden at first. When her voice boomed through the sanctuary I started to tear up and swell with pride. HONEY!!! That's MY BABY!!! Then in the play when they discovered that The Oz was just a person, I braced myself because now she was in front of the audience. HONEY? She played that part like only a sista could. I thought I was watching The Wiz with a strong female leading role!!! Tears flowing, I look at my husband who is fighting tears too. Y'all don't understand. This child didn't break out of her shell. She melted that that bad boy and was bathed in feminine flyness when she emerged. I was just so amazed my her.

At this point I know you are wondering what all this has to do with me falling off right? Well, as I've told you we eat for every occasion. Don't judge me. We went to Razzoo's and they are NOT known for vegetarian ANYTHING!!! Okay plus, I was ill prepared and was eating out of raw emotion. Shoot, I was crying while I was typing this post. I have got to learn how to separate food and emotion.

Getting started...Again

Don't know if I ever told you, but you should always prep for a cleanse if you don't want to suffer crisis. Now, I'm talking about a "real" cleanse, not just giving up a little something. A cleanse where you are going totally raw, juicing, smoothies, teas, etc. I am doing a 21 day cleanse January 1, but my body was like, "Well, you at least need to get back on track a lil bit first. Don'tcha think?" So I'm doing just that. I'm not making any major promises because we are still in the throws of the Helladay--I mean Holiday season. I don't hate the holidays, I hate how people act during them...and I hate how I eat!

All that to say, I am going to get back on track with my striving for vegan, but settling for vegetarian lifestyle until the cleanse. Wait. Did I forget to tell you that I ate turkey for Native American Holocaust Day--I mean Thanksgiving? Yea, I did. Not only did I eat it, I carved not one, but 2 birds up!!!

This morning I started my day with a double dose of detox tea. About 10am I ate quinoa that I cooked in veggie broth. Toward the end of the quinoa cooking I added some mushrooms that I marinated and dehydrated last night. For my greens I had 2 dishes. I steamed broccoli and carrots that I chopped up last night. I also wilted some kale with sundried tomatoes and green bell pepper. Last but not least, I made a lil dipping sauce for no reason other than I felt like it. It was made of horseradish mustard, Worcestershire sauce, avocado, lemon juice, vinegar (because I didn't have enough lemon juice), cayenne, and a lil salt. DA BOMB!!!!!!!

Please excuse the little smudge on the side of the bowl. I was trying to create a pretty presentation, but I was too hungry.

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366

I have an idea. Don't get to excited, because I have a lot of random ideas, but I think this is a good one. Again, don't get excited because I tend to be pretty flighty and inconsistent. Okay, here's the idea. Are you ready? You sure? Now, let's remember that this is ONLY an idea.

Insert really dramatic drum roll here...

I want to document the year starting with January 1. I am going to start changing my life on January 1. During the coming year I will be making major lifestyle changes, homeschooling full time, consistently teaching hair classes, starting a Rite of Passage program for girls, and considering one for women. My goal is to document all of it to keep myself accountable! I am so excited about the things I have planned. I'm going to be really busy, but hopefully really happy. I am a teacher more than anything else and that is what makes me happy and lawd knows I need some happiness right now. What say you?

Btw 366 because 2012 is a leap year.

$5 and no groceries

At first I was embarrassed to post this, but I think that it may serve as an encouragement to others at some point. We are not, in my humble opinion, truly suffering from the recession but we are feeling it.

Here's the story. I was ordering my veggies weekly from the organic delivery service. Well, that ran me about $50 a week. Sounds like a lot, but we were mainly only eating what came in the box which meant that my grocery bill was vegan, organic, and regulated for the most part. My husband suggested that we change to receiving orders every other week to save money. Even though I didn't like it I did it, recognizing that I can be a little spoiled at times. I am the only one that shops for grocery or cooks, thus, I am the only one that knows what it costs to feed the family. He, however, is the one that pays all the bills. This was a lesson for me in balance and learning to figure things out together. Last week was the off week. If not for Thanksgiving leftovers we wouldn't have had any food. So today I kept looking in my cabinets feeling discouraged and stressed because feeding my family falls to me. As I looked in my cabinet I saw pintos and boxes of cornbread. In the fridge I found 1/2 of a very large purple onion. I decided that I was going to make pintos, purple slaw, and cornbread. I didn't have eggs, cabbage, or mayo. Remember I had $5.

I went to the store and bought a small head of cabbage for $1.29 and then there was a problem. The smallest jar of mayo was $3. As I stood there trying to figure out what to do, I saw that there was a large jar of mayo that was 2 for $6 WITH A $.35 coupon!!! I took my two items to the front and with the coupon my total was $4.94.  As I drove home disappointed about not having eggs for cornbread I remembered something wonderful!!! I have egg replacer!!! Basically it is a vegan way to replace eggs! It's a flour and basically you just use 1.5 Tbsp replacer + 2 Tbsp water to equal 1 egg.

Long story short, too late I know, the meal was delicious AND healthy. Unfortunately my husband, the one that I was most excited to impress, got sick to his stomach and didn't eat any of it. I was so disappointed. I still popped my collar a bit at my ingenuity.

YAHCNA'S VEGAN MEATY SPAGHETTI (GLUTEN AND SOY FREE)

I'm fat...again.

I could really do without celebrating Thanksgiving or Christmas, but I LOVE my family and I LOVE getting together with them for ANY reason. Well, like most families, when we get together we do so across a food filled table. This is especially true during the holidays. 

I have found that I have MAJOR problems eating well during the holidays. I have been miserably full since Thursday. For whatever reason I having problems realizing that I simply don't need as much food anymore. My stomach capacity is less than it once was.

In my usual form I am not going to complain without having a plan. I have started reading "Heal Thyself" by Queen Afua. What I have already gleaned from this is that I will cleanse/fast every month for my holy day. What is my holy day? The date I was born on. Will also cleanse with the seasons, but for this season it will start after Kwanzaa because I am trying to realistic. I might start after Christmas...I'm not sure. My husband is also blessing me with a Vitamix blender!!! YES!!! I AM GETTING A VITAMIX!!!!!! I am so excited!!! I am going to start with replacing one meal a day with a green smoothie, but my goal will be 2 times a day. For whatever reason I have an issue with driving to take an exercise class, but I know I need to do so to get myself back on track. I am going to go back to my African dance classes. I have also found a studio that I can take yoga for $5. So I may be able to get totally in shape for $66 a week. $50 box of food, $6 dance class, and 2 $5 yoga classes. 

The other thing I am going to change is that I'm going to start keep track of my improvements. Usually I am totally anti-scales and measurements. Well, clearly that hasn't worked. I am going to take pictures of myself monthly and document my measurements and weight weekly. Hopefully, this will help because I really need to do something different. I am miserable AGAIN!!! This has got to stop. This is a family problem and if I want to prevent it in my children then I have to figure this thing out. If you have any suggestions, please let me know what they are. 

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Cancer, cancer, and more cancer...

I don't know if I ever mentioned this before, but my family has a history of cancer. A LOT of cancer and seems to start at every young ages such as 30s and 40s. It consist of just about every kind you can think of. Recently, my aunt went and got genetic counseling done and found that she carried a gene for breast and reproductive cancers. One of her 2 daughters got tested also. One daughter tested positive while the other tested negative. Now, of course, my mother wants my sister and I to go. I haven't talked to my sister, who btw has already had breast cancer. Wait, maybe she doesn't even have to go because she already had it. Anyway, I am a little leery about getting tested. If I don't have the gene it also means that my daughter is free and clear, but if I do have it then the saga continues. I have decided that I'm not going to have cancer because I'm tired of seeing what it does to people. My cousin is dying from it as I type. I'm full of regret, but it doesn't matter now I guess. The best I can do it glean from what she told me and move forward.

I feel more pressure than ever to dive into a vegan life style and eventually move toward raw. The problem is simple. I am petrified of what I see going on around me in my family. What do strong emotions do? They make me what to eat!!! Eat what? Starch.

I just needed to vent. I don't need any answers, not that anybody reads this. lol I have to find a way to preventatively heal myself and my family.

Pictures!!!