I'm back!

Whew! What a week. The hubby was away on business, so I packed the kids up and headed to my mom's. I'm a major chicken....more like a paranoid freak when it comes to staying by myself. In the middle of the summer when the skies turn black with clouds I call Seth to see if he's on his way home yet so that I don't have to sit through a thunderstorm all by myself. Yes, THAT chicken. :) The week went great, and we are all back home together again. Although I had some major convincing to do with our boys when it was time to leave "nana's" house. Not sure if it was the new toys, fun snacks, 4,000 square feet to run around in, or the cable tv. Okay, that last one was probably my reason for wanting to stay longer. :) We definitely felt like we were on a little vacation of our own, which was probably good for us....well, especially me. My mom made dinner (my sister did too, one night!) and allowed me to take a hot shower every morning completely alone! What a blessing. A little while back my amazing man got me this new luggage. It made the t-shirts and sweatpants that I packed feel so much cuter. :)

And this amazing tote came from here. I packed TONS of books, and this bag held them all. Love love love the monograming. Thanks babe!

The one problem about going to mom's is that I get inspired to do house projects. :( You'd think this would be a good thing, but it only results in this:

This is because my mom and I sit around and talk about paint colors, and counter tops, and upholstery fabric, and crown moulding, etc. etc. etc. Then I come home with all these brilliant new ideas which I need to implement right away, of course. Project #1 was move the enormous antique buffet out of the family room (which held all of these toys, plus the coloring books, puzzles, and art projects) so that we could move another antique into the room to hold the tv and movies. At the time, I obviously wasn't thinking about the fact that all of these toys would need somewhere to go too. :)
I know that all of this has nothing to do with health topics. Sorry for disappointing. :( But, these are my reasons for not blogging. There. I've made my confession. Now back to the books I go! :)

Day 8 - part two

This made an impression on me today, and I'm hoping it will affect your thinking as well. I was scanning "YouTube" channels during nap time today, trying to find more on Kris Carr, author of Crazy Sexy Cancer. She has a lot of wisdom to offer, not all of which I agree with. But I am taking what I can of her philosophy of raw foods and learning as much as I can. She was interviewed on a morning show, and this portion of her clip hit me hard: "We all have cancer cells. It's just a matter of whether or not they have manifested themselves into the disease or not". I have a mental picture of all these germy looking cancer cells standing in a line on an elementary school playground playing "red light! green light!". :) What am I doing today to give those cells the green light? Not enough sleep? Not handling stress well? That handful of chocolate chips I snagged when I had all three kiddos in bed? Lack of exercise today? Something to think about....

Day 8

For the past four years, I have made approximately 95% of our bread at home. We received a bread machine as a wedding gift and fell in love with the warm, soft loaves right from the oven. Even my children preferred the homemade stuff. I occasionally patted myself on the back for being such a great mother to offer preservative free bread to my family. :) Don't get me wrong, I haven't thrown the bread machine out with the trash just because of our new health goals. But I have found a better alternative. Our local health food store (as well as the big chain grocer down the road) sells sprouted grain bread, and I knew we needed to give it a try. I bought a loaf, stuck it in the back of the refrigerator, and tried to forget about it for a few days. I've made mostly whole wheat bread with my machine, but this stuff looked like it would take some getting used to. I finally got the nerve to try it, and let me tell you, I am HOOKED! It's delicious! We put it in the toaster, mainly because it's cold from being in the fridge, but also because it helps to soften it up a bit. If you are a white-bread only family, you may need to take a few baby steps to get to this point. The brand we buy is Ezekiel 4:9. Yes, as in the verse that states "take also unto thee wheat and barley and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make bread of it...." Another huge plus: it doesn't contain yeast! That should be the next blog.....hm.....because now I'm sure everyone is thinking "something else I'm not allowed to eat!?!?!" :) It's grainy, and rich, and nutty, and so completely packed with nutrients. Check out this website for the low-down:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/701909/health_benefits_of_sprouted_grain_bread.html

You have to store it in the fridge, or the freezer, because it is technically "alive" and doesn't contain preservatives. But that's the whole goal here, right? Eating living foods, to bring life to our bodies, rather than eating foods containing dead nutrients. The kids are loving it, so it has passed the test of "can we keep this new lifestyle change in our family forever". Also, I can't leave today's post short and sweet without an encouraging word about my prince charming. He has lost 4 lbs., has eliminated 95% of his heart burn, and has a new and improved pH level of 6.5-7.0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so excited for him. He drinks the Green Lemonade every morning and I pack him raw nuts and seeds, as well as plenty of fresh fruit to hold him over until lunch every day. From lunch until his day is done he eats whatever he wants. Way to go babe!

Day 7 - the "new" 4 food groups

Okay, yet another thing I've learned from Natalia Rose's book The Raw Food Detox Diet. Gotta give her credit! This girl knows her stuff. :) Anybody remember the Food Pyramid???? Their suggestion of all of those grains and meats.....a little outdated I suppose, seeing how far we've come as a country who now knows better, at least in the "food pyramid" field. Hehe. :) Natalia breaks it down to 4: starches, fleshes, nuts/seeds/dried fruit, and fresh fruit. There is a rule, though! You can never combine them. Weird, huh? They aren't even allowed to touch in the stomach, which means you need a few hours in between eating each different group. I'll explain. Her purpose is called "quick exit combinations". When any of these food groups are combined, it slows digestion. I really wish I could just quote her whole chapter on this. I'm skimming over it right now, trying to decide what is most important to share with you. Grasp this concept first: some of the food we eat makes our stomach release an acidic digestive enzyme. Some food needs an alkaline one. Let's say food group #1 needs the acidic one, and food group #2 needs the alkaline one. You have eaten them at the same time (shrimp with pasta, for example), so now these enzymes have literally cancelled each other out. Acid + alkaline = neutral. :) Guess what happens next. Digestion is slowed WAY down and can't work properly, which causes the food you have just eaten to ferment. Germs and bacteria throw a party. Fermented food is the cake and ice cream. :) Your body then has to work so hard digesting your food that it can't do some other really important things well. Things like maintaining healthy organs and keeping your white blood cell count in check. This should be a HUGE light bulb moment for all of those readers who have weight loss in mind. If you are not eliminating waste quickly, you will lose weight slowly. Raw vegetables are "neutral" and they can be eaten with any of the food groups except fresh fruit. Guess what else is considered neutral. :) 70% chocolate! You can find bars of chocolate at health food stores that will write the percentage of cacao that they contain right on the label. Just make sure you choose anything that is at least 70% or higher. I have not implemented any of this information into my own diet yet. This step is too big for me right now. But I do find it interesting, and it makes sense to me. So, there's my newest interesting fact. :)

Day 6 - this week's challenge

A few pictures from my weekend.....

Hoping this produce will last us the week.

We now have 3 family members on the Green Lemonade plan :)

Our morning vitamin! So delicious, filling and refreshing. I can't even tell you!

Yes, you are actually looking at 4 bags of romaine lettuce. Each bag contains 2 heads. We eat 1 head a day, so we needed 7 heads for the week. Crazy ridiculous.

I was able to go out ALL BY MYSELF on Saturday morning to do the produce "run". Thoroughly enjoyed myself. It's not every day, or every week for that matter, that I am able to get out of the house without the rest of the family. Love them to death, but also crave the quiet drives when I have control of the radio and have the freedom of not having to lift and buckle 3 other people. :) I was reading one day during the kid's nap about a way to ease yourself into being a raw foodist. I have no desire to ever be 100% raw, only because I love food WAY too much. And for other reasons pertaining to the fact that I think my younger, very trendy sister would frown upon my adapting to the "raw" lifestyle and fashion sense of wool socks and Birkenstocks. :) Love you dear sister, and appreciate you accepting (maybe with an eye roll!) our very weird lifestyle! :) So ANYWAY, back to my new challenge. We've been downing Green Lemonade for 4 days. I can't even tell you the changes that have taken place. First, we adapted the recipe slightly so drinking it would be more enjoyable. Our lemons happened to be HUGE this week, and the lemon flavor of the drink was too strong for me to handle. To remedy the situation, we've been only using half of a lemon. This helped tons, and we also now add a few strawberries for sweetness. Guess what?! DELICIOUS! Even have the 3 year old in love with it. He calls it Dinosaur Juice and says that he can run really fast after drinking it. :) The hubby gets the ingredients, cuts them up, juices, and serves the drinks every morning. Pretty nice, huh? I get to wash the juicer. :P Now, here's my goal for the week: go raw from 12:00 midnight until noon the next day. Midnight won't be the problem. I'm normally not thinking about food at that time. Too busy nursing her, comforting him after a scary dream, helping someone to the potty, cuddling, or SLEEPING. Breakfast is the green juice, and then I can have all the raw fruit that I want until noon. I tried it one day last week, and found myself literally watching the clock from about 11:15 on. :) Because of my past issues with low blood sugar, and the extra calories required while breastfeeding, I just really need to stay on top of the amount of water I'm drinking as well as how much fruit I'm eating. I try to eat another serving every hour. It seems to be enough to keep my sugar levels up. After noon you are allowed to eat pretty much anything you want. They suggest you have a big salad with dinner. Going to try that as well. So that means I'm not snacking on leftover cookies all morning. I haven't had anything with "bad" sugar, so I'm not craving more "bad" sugar by the afternoon. And 50% of my day is strictly raw. It's easy if we decide to go out for the evening. I'm not restricted to a special diet at that time. And most mornings I make a huge effort to stay home so the baby can nap and I can do school with the boys. This is what fits my life for right now. And this is something that will take some self-discipine, but not extreme sacrifices. We are continuing to skin brush every day. And we have both seen positive physical changes! Before I go, I have to say a huge "thank you" to the many many comments I've gotten about the blog. I had NO idea so many people would be reading it, let alone enjoying it. You are encouraging to me! Thank you. Here's to the start of another week! :)

Day 5 - a word about dairy

Before I start on the whole saga that is dairy, I want to make two comments for those of you who are really reading and really caring. :) I failed to mention on the "dry brushing" post that your brushes need to be made out of natural bristles only. Don't buy a synthetic one! And your strokes need to be long. This is not a "scrub the stain out of the t-shirt" method, but a "this is how I'd brush my goldilock curls if I had them" technique. It's okay if it's not completely comfortable, but it shouldn't be painful. Start softly and slowly. Make sense? Also, my man and I sipped on Green Lemonade this morning! Whew! It's soooo lemony (is that a word?), I can see how they got the name for it. Not at all disgusting. Definitely thick, and green. :) He gulped his like a manly man would. Done in 3 minutes flat. I, on the other hand, had to girly it up a bit. :) I put ice in it and ended up using a straw. Too afraid I'd accidentally get a leaf in my mouth, which actually happened, but it didn't gross me out. It took me about 30 minutes to finish mine. But the exciting things happened an hour later. Okay, may I be frank with you? I feel congested every morning. I sneeze and sneeze and sneeze. But I wasn't this morning! Here's the "frank" part: I could actually feel mucus being drained from my head. I never sneezed once, but my nose started running and I could feel it in the back of my throat. TOTALLY DISGUSTING, I know! Sorry for making your gag reflex wake up. :) But, it was just proof to me that the green lemonade was actually doing something, right away! So encouraging. Okay, now onto dairy.

Have you ever wondered why in the world we drink cow's milk? I mean, have you ever seen a farmer trying to give a cow breastmilk? That wouldn't make sense. We could never expect a cow to be able to digest breast milk. But then why do we expect our bodies to digest cow's milk? Well, guess what? We can't. Not all of it, atleast. And everything that our bodies can't use gets stuck in the lining of our colons. Man, this is turning into a very vile post. :( My 2nd baby was diagnosed with allergies to milk and egg. When we started sharing this information with friends and family, we always got the same question. "How will he get calcium?" Then I panicked. How would he get calcium? Come to find out, leafy greens have WAY more calcium than milk does, and our bodies actually know what to do with that stuff! :) Still contemplating different ways that we can get our boys to drink our morning concoction. May be adding blueberries or some similar fruit, freezing it for a bit, mashing it up and serving it as "dinosaur ice cream". :) We'll see about that one. In the meantime, I was just excited that he doesn't have to be calcium deficient just because he can no longer drink milk. Also, are you wondering what it is that our bodies can't digest? Milk that you buy in conventional grocery stores have been pasteurized and homogenized. This kills everything good that's in it, especially enzymes. Today is not the day to discuss raw milk, but that should be a consideration. What else is so bad about milk? The cow is pumped with antibiotics and growth hormones. These obviously get into the cow's bloodstream and into the milk. We drink a tall glass of the white cold stuff and also get a mouthful of the antibiotics and growth hormones (let alone pesticides, herbicides, etc. that were in the hay and grain that the cow was fed while it was lactating) which then goes into our bloodstream. Ew! Another interesting fact that I came across while reading my new favorite health book The Raw Food Detox Diet by Natalia Rose is this: it's at the top of the list for mucus-producing foods. Here's a quote from the book. "Milk is one of the most mucus-forming foods we can consume. Knowing this, it should come as no surprise that American children suffer to such a great extent from asthma, allergies, ear infections, and colds." Definitely something worth considering, right? Here's something else that I thought was interesting. "According to Victorias Kulvinskas, cofounder of the Hippocrates Institute and best-selling author, pasteurized dairy and cooked meat cause our white blood cell count to increase by 300 to 400 percent. This is what happens when the body responds to infection!" So, if our body goes into attack mode trying to deal with dairy, shouldn't that be a sign that we shouldn't be consuming it? Okay, it's confession time. Right before sitting down to blog this afternoon, I had ice cream. :( Shame on me!

Day 4 - Kale, anyone???

Okay, so I'm totally into Natalia Rose's book The Raw Food Detox Diet. I found it at our local library, but might have to shop on Amazon for this one. It's SO terrific because it offers suggestions that someone other than a raw foodist could live with. This is the next step for us: Green Lemonade. We've already purchased our juicer. I picked one out online that was supposedly the best, but for $450 I decided we needed to make sure we could actually get this stuff past our gag reflex first. :P So, we've relied on the ever faithful Target once again. We now have a brand new Waring Pro Juice Extractor sittin' pretty on the kitchen counter. :) :) :) Hoping to run to the grocery store (or the "cold store", as my eldest puts it) tomorrow for these ingredients:

1 head romaine lettuce or celery

5 to 6 stalks kale (any type)

1 to 2 apples (as needed for sweetness - I recommend organic Fuji)

1 whole organic lemon (you don't have to peel it)

1 to 2 inches fresh ginger (optional)

This recipe is from Natalia's book, so I'll quote her from here. "If I were to tell you that there is something that you can drink that literally infuses your body with millions of enzymes, keeps your immune system strong year-round, offers unparalleled protection against osteoporosis, and tastes highly refreshing and filling, would you want some? It's called Green Lemonade, and I don't know a single successful raw foodist who does not drink some variation of this recipe as the foundation of their Raw Food Diet." Pretty convincing! Well, at least she sold us on the idea. :) She goes on to highly recommend drinking it on an empty stomach. This recipe is 1 serving. There you have it! This is our next step. So appreciative of the many comments I've received thus far. It's great to have proof that there is actually someone reading this stuff. Keep them coming! Also, super excited that we got our boys to eat raw spinach and avocado tonight with dinner. I made tacos and ended up putting the avocado in a mini food processor so they could be easily hidden. They are used to having lettuce in their tortilla wrap, so we decided against iceberg (ingredibly small amounts of nutritional value) and snuck in spinach instead. Hehehe....if they only knew. :)

Day 3

Today's topic is dry brushing. The hubby and I are choosing to move forward with baby steps, because we both know that a drastic change in our lifestyle will only result in feeling deprived. So, peeing on a strip of paper was about the easiest thing we could do. Dry brushing is the next easiest. :) Had a great morning at church, came home to cook lunch and eat, the kidlets laid down for naps, and I scooted myself out the door for yet another trip to the health food store. So....here is what I purchased! Pretty nifty, eh? For a mere $7.99 I can improve circulation, release toxins, and give the lymphatic system a huge kick in the rear. Here's how you do it: always always always start with the soles of your feet. Start brushing away, all the while moving to the top of your feet, up to your ankles, up your legs, then to your hips. Then you can start on your hands, up your arms, and back. ALWAYS brush in the direction of your heart. And if you brush your stomach, they say to do it in a counter-clockwise rotation. I've read other websites that have stated clockwise, but the most "legit" ones say counter-clockwise. Keep the brush dry, and only brush on dry skin. If you brush on wet or damp skin (leaving out the word "moist", because it creeps my husband out! :) ) it will stretch the skin and not be as affective. They suggest doing it before hopping in the shower. Once you are done brushing, you will more than likely be left with very flaky skin which you will then want to wash off. Also, don't share brushes. That's just gross. :P Your brush will be full of dead skin, so once a week or so you can wash it with mild soap and water. Leave it out to fully dry, or be stuck with a mildewed brush! :) Need more motivation to dry brush? The skin is the body's largest organ. The skin is also where we get rid of a 1/4 of our body's toxins each day. This blog is all about detoxifying and oxygenating our cells, so, why not? Just a few minutes each morning before you hop in the shower. Need one more reason? Dry brushing can GREATLY decrease cellulite. Convinced yet? I thought so. So start brushing, people! Your skin will thank you for it! :)

Day 2 (hold on to your big girl panties for this one)

Well, yesterday I bundled up my three little kiddos and made a very special trip to our local health food store. I've read alot about our bodies pH levels lately, and knew there were strips to test mine. Thankful that there was a nice, helpful lady behind the counter where they can mix up specialty concoctions, I approached her with one simple question. "Do you have those strips you pee on to check your pH levels?" Sure enough, they had them! She said they just started carrying a new kind that only needed the saliva from your mouth to test, but they had just run out of those. That's okay, I thought. I've been peeing in cups for 3 years straight in order for my OB to check for protein. I can handle doing it once more. The little box I bought cost me $9.99 and held 30 strips. On the back of the box is the graph you hold your post-peed strip up to to compare the colors and see for yourself where your pH level lies. Also picked up 2 packs of blueberries for the kids. They beg and beg and beg for these things. It KILLS me how expensive they are this time of year though. I can buy an entire bag of animal crackers for what, about $2? And those would last me weeks. But blueberries, in January cost me $10 and I've hid them in the back of the fridge so they'd last us 2 days. :( Anyway, back to the strips. My mom said she read somewhere that the best time to test is the first thing in the morning. So there they sat, on my bathroom counter, waiting to show me just how acidic I really am. Baby #3 woke first the next morning. Jumped out of bed (well okay, just rolled) to have a quick snuggle in the rocker while she nursed. Her room was dark enough that she thought it was still night-time, so I took advantage and placed her back in her pink-paisley'd crib. Hubby had gotten in the shower, and I headed in to say good morning. Not the shower, just the bathroom. :) Saw the strips laying there, calling my name, and got a spark of energy! There was no way I could test in THAT bathroom with HIM in there, though. We may have been married for 5 years, but there are just some things that a classy woman who is trying to maintain some mystique can't do! So me and my strips headed downstairs to the powder room. Pull the strip out, pee, and hold it up immediately to the chart. Ohhhhh.....ahhhh....not so good. Yep, I'm acidic. Who would've guessed!? A diet rich in animal products, processed foods and sugar can do that to a gal. :) In case you never paid attention in school, here's a quick review. The pH scale starts at 0 and ends at 14, with 7.0 being the preferred safe number. I scored a 5.5. Seth tested as well, and he scored 5.0. Yikes. So, needless to say, we have a lot of work to do. Maybe by now you are asking yourself "Why in the world is my body's pH so stinkin' important!?" Boy oh boy do I have answers for you. :) Not all of them of course. Here are the things I am learning as I read. In 1931 a man by the name of Otto Warburg won a Nobel Prize because of this: he could prove that the #1 cause of cancer is a lack of oxygen in and around our cells. Cancer feeds off of an oxygen deficient environment. An oxygen deficient environment is caused by acidity. Is this making sense to you? Therefore, acidity is bad. Very, very bad. On the flip side, an alkaline environment fills our bodies with oxygen! The more oxygen in our cells, the best chance we have at inhibiting cancer to spread and for it to even start in the first place! At this point in my "blogging", I feel saddened. My grandmother died of breast cancer after fighting it for many, many years. I can literally say I saw her slowly die right before my very eyes. Was there ever a time while sitting in a waiting room preparing for her date with chemo, that the doctors office supplied a friendly candy jar to occupy their anxious prisoners? And did her aforementioned doctor ever have the slightest hint that the main ingredient in that piece of candy was only causing her sickness to have a small "happy hour" party. I would LOVE to have alittle one-on-one chat with every single cancer doctor in this country. I know nothing, but I am learning tons, and I wonder why doctors quickly jump to shock treatments without giving any hope of what a different lifestyle could do. Two years ago my middle child developed a thick, dry, yellow scab on his head. Terrified, I ushered him into our conventional pediatrician's office. Guess what she did? We were written out a prescription for a steroid cream to use multiple times a day, because she wasn't sure what it was. Thankfully that prescription was never filled, and we quickly found out (by process of elimination) that he was allergic to the wool hat we covered his cute little baby head with. My blood pressure is boiling just recalling this story to you, the unknown reader who is probably hoping that by now I wrap up today's blog. :) In conclusion, here are a few quick tips on how to reduce the acid and become more alkaline: go raw! Raw foods (green leafy veggies is what we're looking for) are life-giving, therefore usher in gusts of oxygen to our cellular environment. Cut back on animal products too. Acid acid acid. :) Stress is also acidic. You can go completely 100% raw, and still have an acidic pH because of the stress in your life. Yoga, massage, even just warm baths can help in that area. But, I'd have to say, there's nothing quite like taking your burdens to the Lord. :) Well, I'm quitting for now. Maybe blogging was a bad idea. A book might've been wiser. smile.

Day 1

I've struggled with low blood sugar for years. Could control it on my own, though. "A spoonful of peanut butter." "Orange juice is a quick fix." I would get light-headed, or my speech would become slurred, and someone would know to grab a snack for me. I've done the drill a million times. Then, in a matter of 5 years, my father was killed, I was married, I had moved 4 times and had 3 babies. Sleep was no longer sound. The importance of my meals were thrown out the window. There was a hungry husband coming home, a baby to nurse, another baby about to fall off the couch, and a toddler screaming "potty! potty! potty!". After my third baby was born, I had literally relied on a bag of marshmallows for lunch. Who had time for anything else? I was awake at 3:30am for a feeding one night, and decided to shower then. The house was quiet, no one needed me, and it had been 2 days since my last one. I wasn't losing the baby weight and my skin was breaking out, but who cared? I got through another day. Then I started showing signs of depression. I had been diagnosed with clinical depression in high school. I went through months of counseling, and had been fine since. But all of these changes, this stress, was catching up to me. Then one day I overheard a conversation. Something about sugar....yeast.....white blood cells. Hm. I'd always LOVED researching health topics. I knew this was one I needed to consider. Fast forward a few very busy, hectic months. The depression is back. Exhausted and emotional. Starting to convince myself I have true psychological programs. We head to the library and I come across "Crazy Sexy Cancer" by Kris Carr. Ah! I remember this! Way back when I enjoyed the luxury of cable tv, I had watched this. When Kris was diagnosed with a very rare cancer, she was already at stage 4 and was told there were no treatments or known cure. She was told to sit and wait. Instead, she started a new lifestyle full of herbs, raw veggies, disgusting looking green juices, yoga, etc. etc. etc. It's been 7 years since her diagnoses, and her cancer has not spread. "Yay for her!" This was the extent of it, until I began delving deeper into the world of degenerative and autoimmune disease and their link to diet. Then my dear sweet hubby and I sat down for alittle one-on-one time (obviously the 3 children were asleep in their beds....we had made it another day! :) ). He struggles with carpel tunnel, heart burn, IBS, lower back pain, ulcers in his mouth, and headaches. I was sharing with him what I was learning, all the while getting terms and definitions wrong because I still wasn't sure myself if what I was learning was true. "Sugar produces insulin spikes, which white blood cells thrive on, which makes them grow, which leads to cancer. White flour and processed foods are digested by our bodies as sugar, which ofcourse produces the same effect. If all of this is true, then I am laying the foundation for a cancer feeding frenzy!" Take a look at my daily routine for a minute, will you? Breakfast: toast (homemade bread, ofcourse, because I'm not into preservatives....if only I knew the harm the white flour itself was doing....) or cereal (well duh! that one's a no-brainer in the nutrition spectrum. Even bran flakes contain sugar, and every single cereal is processed.) and ofcourse a HUGE glass of juice (sugar sugar sugar). Then there was snack time! I love baking, and 99% of the time there is a delicious baked good sitting on my kitchen counter. That's where I would head first. Lunch. Already mentioned the bag of marshmallows. Then there is my famous time of day which I love to refer to as "mommy minutes". All 3 kiddos are napping peacefully, and I feel like I "deserve" a treat. I mean, come on, I've just made it through an entire morning with 3 kids 2 1/2 and younger! Treats can and did include: ice cream, cake, cookies, cheesecake, lattes, milk, more juice, cupcakes....well, you get the idea. This was EVERY day. It's no wonder I don't weigh 50 lbs. more than I do. Dinner was always sensible. My husband is one of those "meat and potatoes" guys, although he prefers beans and rice (not my specialty). I tried to include a vegetable at every dinner. Failed at that, most of the time, but did try. Then ofcourse there's dinner to clean up, toys to clean up, kids to bathe, stories to read, babies to nurse, laundry to finish....the normal evening routine for every family with young children. All of this would leave me exhausted, and just "deserving" another snack. I've been known to whip up a batch of homemade, from scratch, chocolate chip cookies at 10 o'clock at night just because that's what I'm in the mood for. Who can go to bed without something sweet, or chocolatey? :P I'd always have trouble falling asleep, sick with worry and paranoid thoughts about what could happen in the middle of the night....then would doze off, only to wake alittle while later with heart racing, can't get back to sleep. Suffering from the sugar high from the previous snack, ofcourse. So, this has been my life. This was accepted, and normal. Until I put two and two together, and realized if I don't change something now, then I might as well proclaim to my body "Okay! Go head! I'm giving you the green light to deteriorate and give me a fatal disease!" I know what it was like losing a parent as a teenager, and I don't ever EVER want my own children to experience that. I believe that God is ultimately in control of when we leave this earth, but I don't want to be held responsible for destroying this body he has given me. So, here starts our families journey into all foods life-giving! I've been learning about juicing, oxygenating our cells, releasing stress, digesting enzymes, and so much more. And I'm going to write passionately, as if there is atleast one person out there who is reading this. smile. Body experiment #1 starts in the morning. Can't wait to tell you all about it! :)