Monday

A little late getting this post up… we had a busy day.

GF cinnamon raisin toast with organic butter and several cuties (clementines).

“Cheetah” pudding. (Actually chia pudding, but my daughter calls it cheetah because of the “spots”).

Stopped at Whole Foods after doc appointment for lunch. Chicken salad, grape leaves, and sweet potato.

Cauliflower steaks with pesto and roasted beet salad (greens, goat cheese, walnuts, tomatoes, citrus vinaigrette).

Also had 2 Larabars as snacks during the day. Really need to make my own. Seems like it would be easy.

Felt really great all day today. Lots of energy. Then early in the evening, I just started dragging. Felt tired and irritable. Noticed a new, rather large and already deep lesion. And I can now see the reason for my swollen cheek- another lesion. Neither of these are big issues right now, and are only slightly affecting my eating (chewing and manipulating leaves is possible, but hard, and tiring). Didn’t quite finish my salad for that reason.

There are some changes to my treatment plan based on my meeting with my doctor today, but I’ll post that separately.

Monday

Dejavu breakfast… exactly the same as yesterday. I really, really like bee pollen.

Also drank about 24 oz of lemon water to try to finish off this headache I’ve had since yesterday.

Lunch was frozen leftover shrimp stir fry with flax and cashews, and raw broccoli soup (microwaved, so no longer raw, I guess).

Also did quite a bit of juicing today. About 32 ounces of alkalizing greens.

My dad lost 10+ pounds during the 3 day juice cleanse, and he seems to be feeling revitalized and energized. Says he walks with less pain than he’s had in years. And, apparently, there was a dancing incident in the grocery store yesterday. At any rate, he’s hooked and wants more juice.

Dinner was a roasted beet salad… spinach greens, goat cheese, walnuts, avocado, and orange balsamic vinaigrette. It was prettier before I dug in, but I forgot and started eating before taking a picture.

And cookies my mom made based on a friend’s recipe (thanks Mrs. V!). Delicious.

And I attempted the flavored water that’s all over Facebook and Pinterest. Blackberry Sage. I think it needs to sit a bit longer. It was only slightly sage-y, and not at all blackberry-y.

Sunday

Breakfast was gf toast with coconut spread and sprinkled with bee pollen.

For lunch, I made a simple, classic, organic, chicken and vegetable soup with carrots, onions, garlic, celery, and seasoned with herbs from the garden (rosemary, oregano, thyme, basil) and himilayan sea salt. My daughter, parents, and I ate about half the pot, and I had a big crew coming over to eat soup for dinner, soooooo, I added more water, vegan bouillon, and some of the pulp from my green juices (kale, parsley, and celery) to stretch it and boost the nutrition.

The green juice also has cucumbers and lime, in addition to the kale, parsley, and celery I mentioned earlier. I drank three of these glasses. I think that would be close to 48 ounces of alkalizing goodness. Ahhhhhh.

This is coconut millet pudding. Almond milk, vanilla, agave, pie spice, millet, coconut flakes. Got the recipe from the millet package.

Topped each serving with vegan whipped cream (the fluffy top layer in a can of coconut milk) and a couple of blackberries. Sometimes I worry when presenting new, strange, healthy dishes to my family and friends. But the pan was completely cleared out. And this would be a great breakfast recipe as well.

Also made some vanilla chia pudding. It’s so easy, and so good.

1 cup almond milk
3 tbsp chia seeds
Vanilla and stevia to taste

Mix it up and let it sit in the fridge until the chia seeds gel up and it “sets”. I think that’s even easier than packaged pudding.

Ate 2 pieces of this ham to take my nighttime meds, since I forgot to take them at dinner.

Fighting off a headache tonight. Don’t think it’s due to dehydration, but I’m drinking more water anyway. Feels like it started in my shoulders, so I did about 30 minute of P90X Stretch to try to relieve tension. It felt really good to stretch, but didn’t get rid of the headache. Going to try to avoid it, but I might have to take something for it tonight. The pain is getting stronger and is right behind my eyeballs. I guess a couple of ibuprofen won’t be a big deal, considering the cocktail of pills I take every day anyway.

Update: I was able to fall asleep without having to take anything for the headache. I did use some frankincense essential oil on my wrists and temples while stretching. When I woke up the next morning, it was nearly gone.

Saturday

Still planning to drink all the usual juices today, but I’m going to eat normally as well. Decided to continue as before for now- including grains (except wheat) but moderating them a bit, and minimizing animal products, with the focus being on finding pastured, grass fed, organic products.

Breakfast was 16oz signature greens, gf toast with coconut spread, and fruit.

Lunch was 12oz ginger lemon aid, 12oz red beet elixir, and Kashi cereal with kefir.

My daughter’s art activity while I was juicing- she painted with leftover juice foam. This stuff is versatile! Nourishes our bodies and our creativity!

Got a massage today (thanks, Mom!) So I’m drinking LOTS of water to flush out any additional toxins that stirred up along with the detox. I feel great. One tiny lesion coming up as the last one fades away. I could totally go the rest of my life with one lesion at a time. Though it lets me know I’m not quite in balance yet.

Had 2 Larabars as a snack while health food shopping with my mom. Coconut cream pie and peanut butter chocolate.

Had frozen leftovers for dinner. I intended to eat all 3, sharing them with my daughter, but she didn’t eat much, so we didn’t eat the shrimp dish. Just the stir-fry and broccoli soup. Plus carrot cake juice and almond delight.

Made my first attempt at homemade toothpaste. Baking soda, xylitol, coconut oil, thieves oil, crushed up calcium/magnesium tablets, and a pinch of himilayan sea salt. From what I’ve read, this should do a good job of remineralizing our teeth. The coconut oil, xylitol, and thieves oil all have antifungal, antibacterial, or otherwise anti microbial properties. The baking soda and sea salt will polish, and the calcium/magnesium tablets and sea salt will remineralize. It tastes pretty good. I didn’t follow an exact recipe. I found a bunch of different recipes on Pinterest and kind of made up my own thing based off of those.

If we like this toothpaste and use it long term (never to buy conventional toothpaste again?) I’ll find a better container to keep it in. Possibly something that we can squeeze it out of. In the meantime, an old baby food jar will work.

It’s driving me nuts that I spelled thieves wrong on the label. In an exercise against my perfectionist tendencies, I’m purposefully not correcting it. I mean, who cares, right? We’ll see if I make it through the night without fixing it.

Had 2 squares of 70% chocolate and dried apple rings as a late night snack. I’ve had well over 64 oz of water today and I still feel thirsty. I normally have a hard time making myself drink water, so I’m glad it’s been easy today. Wonder if it has anything to do with the detox process and/or the massage. I hope it’s flushing out toxins! I want that crap outta my body!

Tuesday

Traveling today, so I’m cutting myself some slack. I did get a pic of breakfast. Scrambled eggs on a corn tortilla with avocado and salsa verde. Strawberries and hot chocolate (almond milk, cocoa powder, agave).

Lunch was coconut spread and banana on gf bread and massaged kale salad. And an imuno-build greens drink.

Snacked on trail mix and gf cookies. And lots of hot tea.

And dinner was a microwaved carrot soufflé. Around midnight. It took us almost 12 hours to drive what should’ve been a 7-8 hour trip. Along the way, we got a flat tire, fixed it, then almost lost the rear bumper, and had to pull over and fix that. Then a pebble got thrown up by a semi and cracked the windshield. It was pretty much smooth sailing after that, but it was NOT a relaxing drive.

Glad to be home and excited to start a juice cleanse or detox of some sort very soon!

Monday’s Dinner

Not much of a dinner, but it was late, and I really wasn’t hungry. Just needed something to help take my meds.

These gf cookies are really good. We tried the peanut butter and ginger snaps. They do have quite a bit of sugar, so definitely not something I even need to be eating right now, and they’re $8 a pop, so I won’t be buying them. But, when I’m healthier, I’ll try mimicking the recipe for a homemade treat. And that’s almond milk with stevia and cinnamon. Perfect for cookie dunking.

Saturday’s Snack

Chips and salsa. And a glass of kefir.

Saturday’s Breakfast

We were in a hurry to get to yet another egg hunt this morning, so I ate my snickerdoodle bites for breakfast. It’s a good thing they’re a lot healthier than they sound!

Friday’s Snack

I didn’t plan very well for our day out. We spent the afternoon at the zoo and went to a local fair. I brought a few apples and a bunch of grapes. And some pear slices left over from breakfast. Thank goodness for trail mix. That kept me from assaulting the funnel cake guys at the fair.

I’m not feeling great today, but I’m feeling well enough to get out and enjoy the day with my family, so I’m very grateful for that. The weather is perfect. It’s a beautiful day.

My uncle passed away recently, so we’ll be traveling soon for his funeral. Thinking of him and how fleeting life is, and how important it is to treasure the time we have and take advantage of it, even when we don’t feel well. These may be the only moments we get.

Thursday’s Snack

Juiced this stuff for a yellow juice.

Also munched on trail mix and popcorn at various times throughout the day. And drank about 20 oz of my detox drink: water, milk thistle, lime, and stevia.

Wednesday’s Snack

Here’s the raw coconut cashew cookie balls I kind of made up based on the raw brownie recipe from last week. It has cashews, fresh coconut, dates, sea salt, and a smidge of agave nectar. All blended up in the food processor then shaped into bite size balls.

And I juiced this stuff.

Tuesday’s Snack

With coconut oil, himilayan sea salt, stevia, and pie spice.

I’m wondering if there’s a healthier kernel I should be using. I get the yellow corn, because I’ve read it’s more nutritious than white. But I wonder if this corn is GMO. We’re eating a lot of it lately, so it needs to be good for us. But there’s not a lot of options at the grocery store. Certainly no organic.

Monday’s Snack

Pine nut hummus (Sabra) with black bean tortilla chips.

And popcorn, with a smidge of real butter and himilayan sea salt.

Saturday’s Breakfast

No time for breakfast this morning, so I ate trail mix in the car. We had a very important egg hunt to get to.

Thursday’s Lunch

I know it’s a snack. Don’t judge me. Lol. It was just very filling and left no room for lunch.

Raw Brownie Bites and some herbal cherry tea.

And an orange juice. Still practicing colored juices for my potential future rainbow juice detox.

It didn’t quite fill up my jar, so I topped it off with a splash of actual OJ. And drank this down in the car on the way to a class on “Savvy Salads” at the Center for Natural and Integrative Medicine.

Wednesday’s Snack

Snacked on chocolate chia pudding, which I thought my daughter would share with me, but she wasn’t interested. Also, decaf chai tea in vanilla soymilk.

Tuesday’s Dinner

Kind of looks more like a snack, but it was very filling. Sunflower seed butter, a pear, and raw cacao nibs. Delish!

My headache was creeping back this evening. Downed another alkalizing green juice, and poof! It was gone.

At the seminar tonight, they said the general recommendation is to drink half your body weight in ounces of water or fresh extracted juices daily. If you drink anything like coffee or black tea- that counts negatively toward your water balance. Today, I’d estimate I drank about 32 ounces of water and 48 ounces of juice. Soooo, 80 ounces, and I weigh 125, so it was a good hydration day.

Tuesday’s Snack

Attended a spring detox seminar tonight given by my integrative doc. It. Was. Awesome. I love love love being surrounded by like-minded people. And now I’m totally motivated to get to the farmer’s market tomorrow and stock up on great veggies to do my own version of a semi-detox this week. I have some ideas, but we’ll see what happens.

I sucked these down in the car before heading in. They had snacks, and were all gluten free and healthy. But I didn’t know what to expect, so I made sure I wasn’t starving- just in case.

Monday’s Snack

My mom brought me a jar of kefir. I’ve been researching candida diets, since I obviously have a huge candida problem. My tongue is completely covered with a thick coating of white fungus. I’m toying with home remedies (oregano oil, coconut oil, probiotics) and waiting for a call back from my doc to see if I should resume taking fluconazole. Candida diets typically include a lot of probiotic yogurt and kefir, so that was perfect timing that my mom showed up with a jar of this stuff.

It kind of burns on my tongue. Wonder if that means its working?

Saturday’s Snack

A big green juice made out of this stuff.

And some snack mix in the car.

I did have to take a pain pill today, but I figure if I can still chew up these nuts and seeds, I must be doing ok.