The Remedy...Night 1

It's about 9:15pm and I am finishing up my green water. I'm going to go do the breathing exercises prescribed, dry brush my entire body, shower, stretch, and go to bed. This has been a good day and I feel good about it. Btw, my headache is due to my cycle coming and has nothing to do with the cleanse. :)

I meant to mention that a friend of mine started MC today also. I'm very excited for her! It feels really good to see Sistas taking control of their bodies and health. She is going to change her whole family's outlook on health.

It's not about living forever, it's about living out our allotted time to the fullest!

Headache already...(The Remedy Day-1)

Okay, so I have a headache. This is what I think is going on. 1. My cycle is starting today and when I haven't been eating well I have headaches as one my PMS symptoms 2. This cleanse is working faster than I thought. It's not a migraine, to I'm happy about that, but not being able to take anything is a bit difficult. :(  This a totally normal part of detoxing. Just know you need to just ride this out and it will be better the next day.

This is just an update to allow others to compare notes now or in the future.

The Remedy Cleanse-Day 1

First of all I started off wrong. lol I was supposed to have my juice in before 9am. Um, yea, I came out of the room at 10:46am. Now that we've had "true confessions" we can cover what has happened so far. I juiced an entire bag of oranges. 24oz for my husband and myself and about 16oz for my dawta. I added 1tbsp my husband's and mine and 1/2 tsp to my dawtas. The reason that I reduced the amount for my dawta is that she doesn't eat as much as we do so I knew she wouldn't drink as much juice. I didn't know what they Supa Mega Green tasted like at that point so I didn't want to overwhelm her. After that I put 2 tbsp each in our gallon jugs of distilled water. Mari drinks 48oz of water per day so I gave her another 1/2 tbsp in her water.
How does it taste in the juice?
Well with the orange juice it didn't alter that taste. I chose orange juice because it was cheaper. The book does give other juices that you can drink on day 1.

How does it taste in the water?
Green. It doesn't taste like grass or anything. It does have a little ginger added for flavor. I would describe it as clean and green tasting.

What if I can't drink that much water?
Even if you normally wouldn't drink a gallon, you will be able to do it on this cleanse. Remember you aren't eating anything solid for 4 days. A gallon per day of water, green or not, should be your goal anyway. Your body is made up of mostly water when in top condition so you have to replenish that. Also drinking water will help you to lose weight if that is one of your goals.

Why should I do instead of MC in your opinion?
I am only on day one, but I will offer an opinion on this anyway. This cleanse is much more "doable" with a more balanced approach. If you are in an emergency situation, like I was when I did MC, I'd have to admit that it looks to be a much faster flushing option. You may even consider following your 10 days on MC with 5 days of The Remedy. The Remedy offers more variation because of the choice of juices. I also grew tired of the sweet taste of the "lemonade" all day.

That's all I have for right now. Let me know if you have any questions and I will do my best to answer them.

Finding a Middle Ground with Grits

Okay, so when you are trying to change you diet you often feel as though you are being told "don't eat this...don't eat that...this is poisonous...that causes cancer..." You are also often told that you have to give up your favorite foods. Well one of my guilty pleasures is grits. I don't know what's wrong with grits and to be honest I don't want to know because I'm not going to give it up yet. Queen Afua mentioned replacing grits with somethings that made me prefer giving them up completely so that's a no go. I actually don't eat them that much. For the most part I only eat them when my husband request them, which is maybe about every couple of months.

 Anyhoo, since beginning to read "The Remedy" I feel as though I need to add greens wherever and whenever possible. So yesterday as I sat staring at the pot of grits, thinking about how much starch I was about to feed to myself and my family, I had an idea. I would add spinach to it. I added fresh chopped spinach to the bottom of the bowls, allowed the heat and moisture from the grits to wilt the spinach, and a new middle ground was born. I am a southerner by birth and still live here. We tend to eat really heavy meals and so this is just one more step in the right direction. Next I need to work on portion control and gluttony. Until I get that under control I'll just try to find a healthier way so that I don't balloon back up to my former 185+lbs.

The Remedy...the basics week 1

First and foremost, because I believe that we should support African American in business. I will not be giving all of the information that can be found in "The Remedy". He has it packed full of encouragement, hints, nutritional info, recipes (all kinds), exercise, etc so you DO NEED TO BUY THE BOOK!

Table of contents and abbreviated run down:
Part I-The Remedy
This covers the chlorophyllian cleanse. I am REALLY excited about this and I hope I can do it for 2 weeks to replace the week 2 step. We'll see. Basically in week 1 you juice in the morning and evening and you drink 1 gallon of water that contains a chlorophyll mixture. I did choose to purchase Brotha Slom's mixture, but he does give you a recipe on how to make your own. I rather just buy what I need. Thanks anyway.

Since I hinted at week 2 I will clarify for you. During week 2 he does allow for a flexitarian diet. This is intended to prevent heavy meat eaters from slitting their wrist from withdrawal symptoms. I don't really need that week, so I'm thinking that I might double up on 1 of the weeks instead (probably week 1).

Messaged Brotha Slom on FB and he said that my Supa  Mega Greens should be here by the end of the week so I'm excited that I should be ready to start on Sunday aka Spring Equinox!!!

Here we go again!

Okay, so I'm going vegan...again. I realize that at this point you think I'm a failure, but I don't even care. This is about my health. Let me start with a cleansing list of my weaknesses:

1. I am addicted to sugar, but not in the form of desserts. I love love love starch! According to Supa Nova Slom I'm a starchetarian.
2. I eat emotionally. I like right now I'm mad as hell and I want a pastry. I'm more pissed off because my husband was supposed to get it hours ago, didn't, and then came out asking about it like I said it 5 minutes ago.
3. I have a major issue with over eating or gluttony. I think it's directly connected to #2.

I will probably add somethings to this list later, but this is all I can think of. So, as you know, I always cleanse with the coming of spring. Well I was going to do the cleanse "The Remedy" by Supa Nova Slom, but the Supa Mega Greens are very slow coming IMHO and he hasn't answered my email enquiring about when it should be here. *just messaged him on FB. Ironically, he'd just made a post about ordering the Mega Greens* Anyway, if they aren't here then I will default to the MC. I really hate doing it and won't even attempt the salt water if I am forced to do it, but I like to cleanse WITH the equinox not before or after. I have to get rid of this stomach. I also have to buy some pepper spray so I can begin walking 3 miles again. Soul Twin doesn't feel too good about me walking alone, but that's why I like it because I'm ALONE! I'm also planning on taking 3 yoga classes a week. We'll see how it goes...Well, this was more of an update than a full post, but of course you will be hearing more from me soon.

California Dreaming in Charleston, SC

My husband and I just celebrated our 4th anniversary. He surprised me with a beautiful vacation in Charleston, SC. One of the things he was most excited about was having dinner at California Dreaming, a well known restaurant that can HIGHLY recommended. Well, this is what we experienced there.

We had a 7:15 reservation, and realized that we were lost. I called in and talked to a hostess who seemed more than happy to help us. She was wonderful and very patient. We made it there with time to spare thanks to her great directions! When we arrived the restaurant was VERY busy and the parking lot was VERY full. A good sign right? Maybe. When we walked up to the front of the establishment we saw a set of stairs and began to look for the wheelchair ramp (my husband is in a wheelchair, but very able bodied). It wasn't marked very well at all, but we found it none the less. We usually enter together via the ramps, but we didn't want to miss our reservation time or even cut it close. We like to be early for things. ;) I walked up to the hostesses and waited patiently. Apparently I forgot to turn off my powers of invisibility because I was left standing there. A couple of kids dressed in ROTC uniforms walked up and immediately got the attention of all 3 hostesses simply to be told to go to the bar to get their to go orders. I waited a couple more seconds and was finally acknowledged with a dry, "Yes. May I help you?" I smile and told her about our reservation and was handed a buzzer. I told her that my husband had used the ramp and that I didn't see him. "Oh, he'll be coming from back there." she pointed vaguely. I glared at her and went to search for my husband in this maze of tables. He met me toward the back of the restaurant. Apparently, wheelchairs use the same ramp that is used by hand trucks to bring in supplies. He'd had to wait outside after using a buzzer to get in. Well the place was so loud that nobody heard him. An employee was using the back exit and was somewhat startled to see my husband on the other side of the service entrance door. We walked back through the restaurant toward the front with him telling me about being stuck outside on the chilly nigh.

My husband and I sat down for a minute or so, but were buzzed promptly at 7:15pm. The first hostess gathered our supplies (utensils and menus) without so much as a glance, handed them to another hostess, who looked us up and down and said, "Follow me". Call me picky, but I was always taught that you greet people before doing anything else. We followed the hostess who periodically glanced over her shoulder to make sure we were there. We passed about 5 tables appropriate for couples, but somehow ended up at the table by the service entrance (the one my husband had be forced to use) and the kitchen. It's common knowledge that seated by the kitchen or bathroom is damn near an insult. I was facing the kitchen only to be entertained by this idiot who beat on the stainless steel counters, spoke loudly about nothing, and danced and sang the whole time. To make it worse, his pants were sagging so that his boxers were showing. Yea, I took a pic although it wasn't very clear, here it is. This is him mid-dance move.

Our waiter was wonderful and a much needed relief because I was beginning to think that being rude and obnoxious was a prerequisite to work in this place. He brought our drinks and my husband and I talked about our experience thus far. Almost on cue, two women (I assume they were also hostesses due to their black outfits and arrogance) walked over to our table talking to each other. They had their hands on our table counting and talking about how to seat the next party. I was glaring at them, not believing that they could be that rude! They saw me looking and gave me a rude little smirk and said, "Um we'll be done in a second." WTF!!! I couldn't believe it!!! I have been treated better at McDonald's!!! Eventually they shot me a look and walked off. Our lovely waiter returned to take our orders and in a very short time returned with our food. They food was delish!!! Not good enough to make me EVER want to eat there again, but it was good enough for me to duplicate at some point.

While we were eating I was waiting for at least one of the managers that I saw running around the stop and speak to us so that I could tell them the good and bad of our experience. Well that never happened. My experience told me that they didn't care anything about us or our money. We paid. Tipped our waiter our normal $10 and exited through the servant's service exit in the cold feeling less than satisfied with our experience.

Our experience with rude people wasn't over yet, because some able bodied lazy jack-ass blocked the ramp with their car. UGH!!!

California Dreaming turned into a dining NIGHTMARE!!!