I love that Luscious & I are diet buddies...

Today was Day 1 of my shake/juice feast. Today I supplemented my 1L of orange juice and my 1L blueberry/mango/banana smoothie with a couple of pieces of fruit due to scheduling...I forgot we had a staff meeting and I didn't want to get really hungry, since I finished my OJ relatively early in the day.

Things are going well so far with the cats. They ate all of the food I put down for them this morning and only left a bit of their dinner from this evening. I'm pretty pleased with how quickly and easily they're adapting to their new diets.

Unfortunately, the Panasonic Grinder I purchased is really not working out at all. Its continuing to jam up and simply can't handle the bones or skin that are going in with the chicken (both really REALLY necessary for the cats' overall health!) I even switched from drumsticks to chicken wings today, hoping the smaller bones would be ground more easily, but I had even more trouble today than I did yesterday. I wound up giving up after I'd produced just under what they'd need for the whole day tomorrow -- I'm just going make a huge batch of the raw food using boneless chicken tomorrow afternoon to tide them over until the new machine arrives.

Luckily I found a reasonably priced grinder on amazon thats received really good reviews from people who grind up whole chickens/etc for their cats & dogs. I'm hopeful that this works, because I'm not exactly planning on purchasing a $2000 industrial grinder anytime soon.

http://www.amazon.com/Electric-Meat-Grinder-Ends-Cranking/dp/B0000AXDVK

Preparing their food is really something that I can't continue to do on a regular basis because its just too fucking disgusting. My hands still smell like meat and its really grossing me out. If i can get the prep down to once every 2-4 weeks, I'll be thrilled.

I moved!

Hop on over to http://kalequeen.wordpress.com for continued blog updates!

Raw Cat Food Meat Grinding Extravaganza!

I found a meat grinder on Craigslist last night for $65 last night and bought it this afternoon. I spent TWO HOURS in the kitchen, figuring things out, jamming pieces of meat far too big for the grinder into the grinder, getting frustrated with meat grinder, struggling to dissassemble/remove bone/reassemble the grinder....overall a ridiculous ordeal. After two hours, I managed to produce 1 day's worth of food:

Each ground chicken patty is 2.5 ounces, which is 2-3% of my cats weights (between 10 and 12 lbs...and in Luscious' case, her healthy/intended weight). While today was relatively frustrating, I've learned some things and should be able to crank out more final product, more quickly, each time I have to break out the grinder.

I'll go into more detail on the process in later posts, including strategies for faster/more streamlined grinding of the cat's food, as well as added supplementation. Many owners switch their cats to raw food due to weight issues their cats have (like LUSCIOUS!) so I'll address what I'm doing differently for her as well.Even though the actual making of the food really grossed me out, I'm excited to be doing such a great thing for my cats! Raw is really really the best.

Here are some pictures of the cats:

One of all four (you can sort of see how big Luscious is here in comparison to the other cats)

Here's one of Luscious Fantasia Brusciouses all by herself, this is a classic Luscious pose and probably my favorite picture we've taken of her to date! Too bad that big beautiful luscious stomach will be shrinking soon. She hardly ever leaves this ottoman!

Dante Cheyenne Champagne is in pretty decent health. He has a really healthy and shiny coat. He does suffer from the most horrid, rancid cat breath I've ever encountered in my life, and occasionally experiences room-clearing gas.

Luscious' brother, the Reverend Frederick Aluiscious Brusciouses III is the healthiest of our cats. His coat is the shiniest and softest, and he has a significant amount of muscle mass. He is the Alpha Male (a phenomenon I wasn't sure existed among domesticated cats until I met this guy). You can really see the family resemblance between them in their faces...and nowhere else, really. :)

Jack Knickabuckna Powell is my favorite! He is fairly healthy with the occasional gas & gross poops. A few months ago we were drying out some umbrellas which really intrigued the cats, subsequently leading to this and other glamour shots.

So those are all the cats! I can't wait to post their vibrant, healthy faces after a few weeks on raw food!

what a silly quote...

"But the bottom line," he added, "is that we already know that the genes that are associated with exceptional longevity already exist, and that they are concentrated in subgroups of the population. And the rest of us don't have those genes, or don't have all of them. Those who do have won the genetic lottery for making it out to exceptional old age. And, unfortunately, if you haven't won, there's no chance you can make it."
--Jay Olshansky, a senior research scientist at the University of Chicago's Center on Aging

from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/16/AR2008121600756_2.html

Pushups & Cat Food

I just got back from the gym! Yesterday & today were the first days that my legs really felt usable after Thursdays ass-kicking workout. I was limping around like an old lady for most of the weekend, and the pain was almost unbearable when I'd try to go up or down stairs. Overall, I did not feel good.



Anyway, I developed a pretty nasty cold on Sunday/Monday which pretty much came to a head today. Getting out of bed was nearly impossible this morning. I juiced it up old school today (1.5L green smoothie, 2L celery juice) but caved and ended up eating rice/yucca/bacalao from the hispanic place next door. Ugh. I didn't feel that crappy afterwards, but I was a bit worried that it would interfere with my speedy recovery.



I came home right away after school today (after thoroughly clearing my desk in case I decide to take tomorrow off...tehe), sat & rested, caught up with some emails, etc etc, and eventually felt well enough to go to the gym. I did the Week 1, Day 1 of http://hundredpushups.com/ and found it to be a bit challenging. I did a series of 6, 6, 4, 4, 5+ pushups. What made it so difficult is that as my arms get stronger, my form gets better and the number of pushups that I can do with super-correct form decreases. Obviously this will increase over time, but for right now I am really feeling the burn. I also ran for 30 minutes on an 2309283 incline, and feel so much better now (breathing/hackey wise) than I did before I went running.



I've decided I'm going to switch my cats to an all raw diet (consisting of raw meat/bones, some fish, pureed veggies, freshly grown wheatgrass, eggs, oils, and supplements). After months of watching Luscious get even more...luscious, I've decided my planning needs to morph into some serious action. I weighed the cats today (first by trying to coax them onto the scale, then by realizing I could just pick them up and stand on the scale...DUH). Luscious is 17 pounds! Her brother Fred is 12 pounds, and a solid, solid muscular cat. This makes me feel like Luscious should probably fall within the 10-12lb range. If she were a human, she would probably be considered morbidly obese. :( Jack and Dante are both 10 pounds each, and while weight-wise I'm only concerned with Luscious, the others would definitely benifit from raw food as well.

I've been reading up on raw food for cats for a while and am absolutely horrified by the things that go into conventional cat food. Kibble contains melamine, preservatives, animal "by-products," and grain/carbohydrate fillers that cause digestive problems. The fats in conventional dry kibble typically go rancid before the food is even consumed. On study showed that 9 out of 10 bags of dry kibble have some type of bug living in them. Gaaaah. Its disgusting!

So now I need to find a meat grinder. And take some before & after pictures of the kitties!

Stolen Cell Phone!

So, as some of you may know, my cell phone was stolen on Thursday night while I was at the gym. I accidentally left it on a treadmill for no more than 2 minutes, and when I went back it was gone. After the initial trauma of being heckled by the ladies who stole my phone when I tried calling it, things started to feel pretty good.

I LOVE not having a phone. The night it was stolen I panicked and spent hours searching online, trying to find something to tide me over on eBay until my contract renews in February (iPhone time!) If I were to replace it with an iPhone through AT&T at this moment, it would cost me over $500. My roommate suggested I wait 2 days, and if I still *NEEDED* to have a phone, I could then figure something out when I'm thinking more clearly. Its been four days (even including a weekend!) and I've decided that I'm completely fine going without. In all honesty, the thing I miss most is being able to tweet at all hours of the (work)day. Haha.

I'm really looking forward to this experience!



Moral of the story: You don't NEED a cell phone. Also, it probably doesn't hurt to spend the $10 or so per month on insurance.

Craaaaavings. :)

Today's Intake So Far:

breakfast:
1L OJ

lunch:
1/2 head romaine, 1/3 avocado, 1/4 cup cherry tomatoes, salt & pepper, cumin, lemon juice
1 apple
1 banana

after work snack:
1 mango
20 cheezy almonds



Due to logistics (mainly the 10 million things happening in the last 36 hours, nearly all unexpected) I didn't have enough OJ on hand to make 2L like I would've liked this morning. I also had no bananas. I wound up having insane-ridiculous cravings for the not-so-good-for-me hispanic food from the bodega next to my school, but since I had an idea of why I was experiencing them (not enough CARBOHYDRATES!) I managed to (barely) ride it out with a couple pieces of fruit. I couldn't finish my salad at lunch today either, I just wasn't feeling it. I think my body is adjusting to the lowered fat intake. Woo! I'm actually feeling MUCH better now that I've eaten my mango.

Its so interesting to think about cravings as being both emotional and physiological. For the majority of the past two weeks, I haven't wanted rice or wheat whatsoever. My thoughts on cravings have been confirmed over the past two days. When my carbohydrate intake dipped too low, I INSTANTLY began craving cooked starches/felt starved -- and even though I had a salad (w/smooshed up avocado) in front of me both times, I didn't want it, because I needed sugar. Our bodies are incredible!

Day 11. :)

Entirely too tired to enter my food in nutridiary...but here goes the intake:

breakfast:
1.5L OJ
1 banana
12 almonds

lunch:
4 cups grapes
31 almonds

dinner:
5 cups mixed fruit salad (melon, grapes, pineapple)
a few bites of cucumber/avocado out of a salad
chamomile tea w/ 2oz honey
2 bananas
EDIT: salad w/1 head romaine, 20 cherry tomatoes, 2tsp olive oil, lemon juice, 20 almonds, salt & pepper
10 cheezy almonds


I'm going to try to muster up the strength to throw something together, its late but I'm too hungry to sleep. Tuesdays are ridiculous and I need to figure out a better plan for getting through them with a full stomach. I don't even want to know how many calories I consumed today. Probably 7. I wound up having to throw out the salad I brought for dinner because I didn't add enough lemon juice to keep the avo from turning. I just couldn't stomach eating it. :(

Today I slid into a pair of pants that hasn't fit me since shortly after my juice feast ended in February. They were a bit snug this morning but totally fit well enough to wear to work. Woo!

I will definitely be stopping at Caravan of Dreams for some dinner tomorrow! I have been craving it all week. While there, I'm going to buy a few containers of hummus to smuggle back to Florida for Thanksgiving. :) This may mean sending it in with my checked baggage, so I will probably wind up sealing it in super tupperware and stuffing that in a lunch box with ice packs!

I can't wait to see my family and throw together some raw vegan deliciousness for Friday, it is going to be fantastic!

things have come half circle.

Ah. A full 6 months after my last posting, I have returned.

I called into work today and spent the majority of it sleeping in/lying around, hence the low food intake. I'm not too worried, I had lots of rich food this weekend from Caravan of Dreams (delicious flax chips and hummus) as well as half a bag of Cheezy Almonds (I recently ordered 1/2 dozen bags from Living Nutz and am trying desperately to ration them out, haha!), so my lack of hunger is probably just balancing out those indulgences.

Today's Intake (so far):

breakfast:
1L orange juice
1 mango
0.5L water

lunch: (munched on over the course of a couple hours)
4 bananas

dinner:
4 cups grapes
a few grape tomatoes
12 almonds
1/3 of tomorrow's lunch salad: 1 bunch kale, 1 avocado, 1/2 cucumber, 1 pint tomatoes, 2tsp EVOO, salt & pepper


Total: 1641 calories, 34g fiber
81 carbohydrates/6 protein/13 fat




I've been frustrated with the choices I've been making over the past half-year. I found that even though I started out eating a vegan diet with a high intake of raw fruits and vegetables, things gradually slid back to the point where I was eating vegan & vegetarian junk food (white italian baguettes, anyone?) and even dairy, among other unmentionables. I couldn't just draw up "reasonable" or "moderate" cooked vegetarian dietary guidelines and just stay within them (ie, x percentage raw, y percentage cooked). For months I struggled to change my eating habits -- I attempted 100% raw several times, tried a whole foods vegan diet, juiced, tried a SAD vegetarian diet where I just counted calories...the list goes on. The only positive aspect that I can really note from the past half year is that the emotional binging stopped. Also, even though I was eating crap at times, I generally only ate until I was full and was conscious of portion sizes.

My food choices began to take an emotional toll on me. Not only did I know the damage I was doing to my body, it was impossible to ignore. I'd put on about 15lb over the course of 6 months, was constantly bloated, tired, irritable, and had basically lost hope of ever being on a raw vegan diet again...or pooping on a regular basis.

I've found that over the past week or so, I've had NO trouble staying raw and haven't experienced ANY cravings whatsoever for wheat or cooked starches. At first I was just grateful for the turn of events, until I did some thinking/random reading and realized it wasn't coincidental at all. In my past 100% endeavors, despite drinking green juices and intaking lots of kale salads, I was still craving cooked grains -- particularly rice. The problem with these attempts (not only within the last 6 months, but throughout the two years I've been on this journey), is that I wasn't consuming enough calories or carbohydrates!

In the past, I'd been so focused on getting in enough greens (salads) and the fullness that eating raw vegan comfort foods (onion bread, flax crackers, pates, nuts, etc) offered. Fruit didn't give me a full feeling immediately and wound up slipping by the wayside. Since I wasn't eating the carbohydrates, I wound up craving the cooked carbs. I ate more fatty heavy things to try to fill that, and the cycle continued, eventually resulting in a cooked-carb binge.

I have a less than desirable grocery situation, and over the past week or so, its been cold and I've been too lazy to go to Manhattan or Park Slope regularly. As a result, the majority of my intake has been OJ (1-2L/day) and bananas; two things that are cheap & local to me, and that I also don't mind buying if not organic. I've also been drinking celery/apple juices (both organic), since Whole Foods isn't too much of a stretch for me. Salads have been simple (tomatoes, avocado, lemon juice, some type of green requiring minimal preparation, salt & pepper) because I've really just been too lazy to even deal with olive oil if I'm already hacking open an avocado.

I'm feel so fortunate and grateful to have figured this out when I did! I am going to enter my daily intake into some type of carbohydrate/fat/calorie tracking system on a regular basis now. I'm not striving for 80/10/10 but I do need to make sure that I am taking in sufficient calories (at least 1500-1600/day?). I'd also like to keep the fat under 20%.

Orange Juice!

Today I got a good run in (the Prospect Park loop in 34 minutes -- roughly a 10 minute mile), and TONS of juice:

- 40oz OJ
- 2 quarts OJ
- 20oz green juice (spinach/cuke/apple/ginger)
- 24oz watermelon juice

I want to work on upping my water intake for tomorrow, but I'm really happy about my workout and juicing today!

Sunday's Run

Hm...I just returned from a 4.6 mile run. It took me 39 minutes, so I averaged an 8:30 minute mile. I'm REALLY happy about that, considering the run felt VERY easy compared to the 11:ish minute mile run I did on the treadmill the other day. Seems like the speedwork is paying off, so I'm going to continue with it a couple of times per week throughout the training. I'm so stoked to do the next couple of weeks of training while feasting, and am excited to see what will happen performance wise. Running felt SO easy tonight.

Juicing today has been great, today I enjoyed
~ 2qts pineapple/beet/apple/ginger juice
- 1 qt green juice (2 bunches kale, 3 gala apples, 1/2 cucumber)
- 400mL apple-blueberry juice

I might have some orange juice later but I've still got quite a bit of the beet/pineapple to go, and I'm feeling pretty satisfied. On the menu for tomorrow is (DEFINITELY) watermelon, blueberry/apple juice, apple/celery, and my usual green juice...if anyone has any yummy suggestions let me know!

YAY FOR COLD REFRIGERATORS! Mine started to work again randomly, which is AMAZING! The Universe totally hearts me. :)

1/2 Training Update & Divine Intervention

Hm.

I'm ashamed to say that my half-marathon training isn't going as well as planned. Right now I'm running about 3 of the scheduled 6 runs per week. I've been doing a little too much goofing off and not enough running. Specifically, spending WAY too much time with my love (and loading up on veggie sandwiches because of it -- but no soy!) I'm taking a sabbatical. I've had enough. I need to get back into juicing and preparing my own healthy meals, so I'm going to spend alot more time alone with my juicer and running this week. :)

Um, and I was supposed to begin a Juice Feast today. I'd only planned a short one -- 10 days or so, to detox my body and kick off raw foods again. I stocked up on some stuff last night to start my day with today, anticipating a larger trip to the co-op this afternoon. When I opened the fridge this morning when I woke up, everything was room temperature. Fuuuuck. I went ahead and juiced everything I had, and am now choking down room temperature green juice. I called my landlord and she said she'd come by TOMORROW. wtf? I'm just grateful this didn't happen when I had a fridge FULL of produce.

After I finish these juices and some water, I'm going tohead out for a couple of easy loops around Prospect Park. I'm determined to run this half-marathon.

Half-M update!

Okay, so a few updates...my running schedule, while ludicrously inconsistent (I've been skipping out on the stretching/strengthening days REALLY bad, and missed Wednesday's run because my leg was sore), has been good. I felt like I sprinted the Prospect Park loop on Tuesday, and I'm really feeling like my running is improving rapidly. I've been upping my green intake (salads, etc) but haven't gotten into any juicing yet. Lots of crap has been cut out of my diet, and the only soy I've had this week has been soy milk with cereal, and in coffee. There's still some more junk to go, but things are already much better. 

I can't wait to see how things go if I do 100% again. 

I'm for sure going to incorporate the strength training and stretching on the days I'm supposed to. My goal next week to prioritize my health (sleeping & eating) and half-marathon training. I seriously overdosed on spending time with my darling this week and missed a couple of runs as a result, even though we usually go running together.

Uh, hm. 3-miler today to make up for Thursday's missed run, then a 4-mile run tomorrow evening. Woo! I'm off to professional development (fortunately 10 minutes from my house), to earn $213908234 per hour. Thinking about setting up an appointment to be fitted for a good pair of running shoes next weekend...

News Flash: KQ is alive! And terrible at blogging!

I'm still kicking. Blogging has been at the bottom of my list of priorities the past few months due to grad school, the end of the school year for my kiddos, and *gasp* HALF-MARATHON TRAINING. I'm back now, and I hope to update every couple of days (at least) with my progress.

I began training for the NYC half-marathon (taking place July 27th) a couple of weeks ago. I've been eating what I consider to be a fairly junky vegan diet (lots of un-chicken patties, vegan bologna, ezekial bread, etc), and not too much as far as greens. This has left me feeling rather crappy as a result. My running has improved regardless, so I'm stepping it up this week and including more green smoothies and tons of salad & green juice. I want to see if I can run this training totally raw, but I'm not rushing anything.

As far as the training, I'm following Hal Higdon's half-marathon program, which involves steadily increasing my mileage over the next 11 weeks until I'm ready for the 13.1 half.

I got a bit behind on my runs the past few days since it was the last week of the semester, and ended up running two longer runs back to back. Late last night I ran the Prospect Park loop (3.35 miles) with my love, and we ran it AGAIN (plus 0.7 for a total of 5 miles) this morning at like 10:00. Note to self: Don't ever fucking do that again. Tomorrow is my "stretching & strengthening" day. I've considered working in some Bikram to those days, but given the absurd intensity of the past two days, I'm thinking about sticking to a regular yoga class.

Anyway, the loop we ran last night felt like one of the best/easiest runs I've been on, and given the fact that my day's intake yesterday basically consisted of un-chicken patty sandwiches, I'm pretty excited to see what tons of fruit & greens will do to my performance. I think one of the reasons it went so well was from the three days of rest I took while scrambling to finish assignments. This morning's run wasn't nearly as good, since I was still recovering from yesterday's loop (heh, I think the two runs were actually within 12 hours of each other). Seriously though, never again, the last thing I want to do is injure myself.

Goals for the week of May 11th:
-- 3+ quarts water per day
-- 2 quarts fresh juices per day
-- no soy!

Easter Weekend...

I wound up having an amazing time on Sunday with the dad's side of my family! It was the best ever, and every time I visit them I realize how lucky I am to have been born into such a great family. I really, REALLY lucked out. :) They're so great! I can't wait for the summer, I'll have my car and will be able to visit them much more frequently (yaay Poconos & Wildwood).

So, on the way to NJ I stopped in Park Slope to fetch my sister...she wasn't ready when I got there so I brought the salad up to pop in her fridge. I wound up forgetting it there, which was pretty crappy. I ended up unloading a bunch of it onto my sister & others (this salad was seriously like 15lb of produce), since I wouldn't have been able to finish it all before it went bad.

Math exam grading is about halfway over...gaaaaaah! There's nothing more soulless than being cramped in a classroom grading standardized tests with 10 other people in the first few days of spring. Oooooooh how I want to be outside. This weekend is going to be crap: 8 hours Saturday, 8 hours Sunday. Ew.

Oh well. I'm going to buy a billion pounds of goji berries with the $392837492834 I earn from all these extra hours. :)

Astelin!

Hm. I was walking through the grocery store today and heard an advertisement for Astelin.

Pharmaceutical companies are obviously hard at work making up ridiculous diseases and even more absurd methods of treating them. Um, not an expert, but hydrochloride seems frighteningly similar to "hydrochloric acid." Yes, thats it...we'll treat your runny nose and sensitivity to chemicals by searing the tissues inside of your nose!

These assholes are taking what is a normal (and healthy) bodily reaction to irritants (their list includes perfume, cigarette smoke, air pollution, CLEANING PRODUCTS, and air fresheners), and classify it as "nonseasonal rhinitis." Then they push a poisonous concotion to "treat" your "symptoms." Wait, we know this story already. And PS, you have to pay for it.


http://www.astelin.com/

Hm...it seems that no sooner than I was celebrating the end of the NYS Math Test, an additional 32 hours of my week got sucked up for grading...luckily it will be over on April 3. At $9823498345/hour, I'm not necessarily complaining...but it would be nice to have time to blog and exercise and sleep and breathe. :)


My sister & I are driving down to New Jersey to visit our extended family for the Easter weekend. I'm really excited, but also a little amused at how drastically different the food around me will be this weekend, compared to last (Garam Masala). I'm bringing a GIANT salad (the biggest biggest salad bowl I own, completely stuffed), with 2 heads of red leaf lettuce, 1 head of green leaf lettuce, sprouts, red peppers, a ton of kirby cucumbers, and vine ripened tomatoes. I tossed it in EVOO, lemon, salt & pepper. Yum.

@!%&*#

...Woah!

My weekend in the Poconos can only be described as unbelievable. I never imagined that I'd grow so close to 20+ people in the matter of 2.5 days. I don't know if any description I could provide would do the retreat any justice. We laughed, we fell still, we brought sexy back.

The personal growth I experienced over the weekend was remarkable...listening to the experiences of so many raw-fooders of all kinds and discussing with them their challenges and triumphs was like a gift from the Universe.

The overwhelming amount of information and insight brought to the table by Anthony, Drew, and Philip was astounding. The retreat absolutely blew my expectations out of the water.

The food was incredible (another understatement). Everything was gourmet, organic, and freshly prepared with love. The tables seemed to constantly be peppered with Sarma's delicious creations (oneluckyduck.com). Oh, and 20 pints of raw vegan gourmet ice cream from pure juice & takeaway? Yes.

Everyone was so warm and authentic, and the chateau was unlike anything I'd ever seen before.

Fortunately, its all been documented in the form of videos, pictures, and MP3 which will surely be popping up all over internet-land (specifically GITMR), that I can't wait to check out myself. I left totally refreshed mentally, physically, and spiritually. My arms hurt from hugging people this morning!


So, I'm completely blown away. Getting back to reality hasn't been easy so far but I'm working on adjusting my perspective. I'm going to see how long I can go without reading a magazine or watching television with my roommate... :) I really want to stay in my blissful raw-vegan bubble.

Also, my new schedule makes my health a priority -- going to bed at 8:00 or 9:00, waking up early enough (5:00 AM) for a run, morning juicing & smoothie'ing it up, etc. etc. Here's to time management and mental health! After today's super early rising, I'm ready for bed right about now. :)

Cheers!

Ah. Here's to the state math test nightmare FINALLY being over. The past month or so feels like it has been the most stressful of my life. I've spent the past three weeks catching up ALL of my students (special & general ed) to the state prescribed curriculum and its been absolutely miserable prepping and training them for this damn test. Its finally over and now we can spend the next few months doing projects & having good times. Also, I can get back to blogging on a regular basis. Woo!

I still have a ridiculous amount of grading to do, and lesson planning is out of control after the March test since we don't really have a solid pacing schedule/guide.



Tonight I made creamy, delicious sesame seed milk for the first time since the end of my juice feast. It tastes incredible and is so super easy to make...

Sesame Seed Milk
32oz cold filtered water
1/2 cup unhulled brown sesame seeds
2oz honey


Oooooh, and I'm heading up to the Poconos for the weekend with all the sexy raw foodies and I can't wait!

Raw Vegan Stealth

Today:
-- 1 qt water
-- green smoothie w/ 10oz mango, 1 bunch spinach
-- 2 apples
-- 2 avocadoes
-- 1 mango
-- marinated salad w/ 1 head purple kale, sprouts (alfalfa & crunchy), handful of cherry tomatoes, 1/2 cucumber, red onion, a drizzle of balsamic & EVOO, sea salt, pepper, cumin, cayenne, and a drop of honey
-- middle eastern feast! (including but not limited to: tabbouleh (parsley, diced cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, cumin, sea salt & pepper, EVOO, lemon juice); sesame seed pate (sesame seeds, cumin, sea salt, pepper, curry, cayenne, red bell pepper, lemon juice); salad (red bell pepper, green leaf lettuce, balsamic, lemon juice, EVOO, red onion, sprouts), DATES!



I made dinner for Abdul tonight and totally tricked him into raw vegan goodness! I told him to bring some pitas (just in case...I didn't want him to leave for work starving!), and served up delicious tabbouleh, salad, and hommus pate...of course he had no idea it was raw, and kept going on about how good everything was! Haha, good times. I ended up making a ton of food so I have enough to take for lunch tomorrow...yaay.

Hm. I'm finding that post-feast I'm starting to get some breakouts. I definitely overdid it on fat today. Meh. I'll be green juicing it up here in a couple of hours or so, for sure. I also need to get going with the running thing. I'm going to try to get into bed by 9:00 or 10:00 tonight so that I can go tomorrow before school.