Beyond Willpower

So, last week was my big test week. I had to work 6 days in a row and I did it, and I am fine. There was a time just a few months ago that I couldn't work two four hour days in a row,  now I can work 6 4-6 hour days in a row? Insanity. How did this happen? I had an amazing physical therapist who did myofascial release on me, gave me pt to do at home, (which I do, pretty religiously), I've cut out gluten, gotten off pain meds, I exercise regularly, I wear my bra straps criss crossed (this helps a lot with back pain)...I've made a lot of changes in the last year and I'm finally seeing some rewards. I feel good. I feel great...I can't remember a time in my life that ever went as well as this year. It's just getting better and better. Which is of course scary in it's own way....but I'll stay positive as long as I can. As you can tell from my lack of blogger presence I've been very busy, but it's a good busy. Full of work, exercise, reading, spend...

This is from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen Check it out of you'd like to increase the amount of raw food you eat, it has some nice recipes. :) I made the cabbage and kale slaw in simple greek dressing last night, and it was pretty good. I didn't have scallions but I did add sweet onions and it gave it a nice kick of flavor. It's basically what it sounds like. First you chop the cabbage into slaw type bits: I use my ninja, which I think I've professed my love for here before. A lot of people say it's a physical impossibility for the ninja to chop evenly due to the way the blades are spaced. The ninja pictured here is the newer food processor/smoothie making one and it has three blades in the big container, not just two. It does chop far more evenly than the old one, but I loved that one too. Just so you can see what it chops like, the pic below shows the finished results of my slaw, with one large piece of cabbage that didn't get chopped quite right, but that was...

So, the last time we tried our 75% raw week it was about 50%, Joey was off work for vaca and it was our anniv and I was having fun cooking, so, meh. :( Before we get into that though, just want to provide these links: www.meatout.org and < here > is my blog post on the subject. Now back to your regularly scheduled blog posting... But, this week we've decided to do it again. We both need a jumpstart to our weight loss. I only lost 1 lb last week, which is fine, it's not a gain, but it's not on target either. I know some of it is my stomach issues. (Was recently diagnosed with ibs-c, the doc thinks the gluten intolerance was masking it.) I know the raw will help with my stomach as well. I think I need to be a bit more structured to keep me on track with the raw thing, I may be posting a daily raw journey on here for what I plan to eat to keep me on track. I know it helps.  I also got this raw uncookbook.  There seems to be way too much fat in it, even if it'...

So, I started doing the 75% raw on Saturday, my weight loss was slowing, I was losing 1, maybe 2 lbs a week if I was lucky. I'm still big enough that for my size, that is good loss, but a little slow. Anyhow, I've lost 3 lbs in the last 3 days of exercising and doing a 75% raw diet. I need to have lost 10 lbs by march 19th if I want to be on track for my four month goal of losing 40 lbs in 4 months . I'm currently at 6 lbs lost. I still need to lose 4 more in the next 12 days. Not an impossible goal. Hopefully I'll have lost a total of 5 (2 more) before this Saturday while doing this mostly raw thing. I think doing this once a month is a fabulous idea! This was my lunch yesterday: GORGEOUS! Anyhow, today was a 6 hour day at work, around hour 5 I started to hurt, but an aleve helped, which leads me to believe that I have a bit of weight bearing pain unrelated to the fibro. The weather was nice though so not much in the way of fibro pain. I'm sure the exercis...

So, maybe a month ago I did a week where I ate about 75% raw food. I would have one cooked meal a day and then fruit/nuts/silk/silk protein shake for breakfast and then maybe a big salad, with some veggies or nuts for a snack. The week I did that it really jump started my weight loss, and I felt kind of great. So, I've decided to try and do it once a month. I figure it'll give my body something new and different to work on breaking down. Can't be bad. So, my bf Joey starting Tuesday is on vaca all week/weekend and it's our 16 year anniv on March 9th. So, when I ordered groceries to be delivered today, I ordered extra since he'll be eating here. (he's a cook and often eats most meals at work.) He's decided to do the mostly raw week with me, we're starting today! Groceries just came this morning and this is our fridge: Stocked with mostly veggies For anyone who is curious, yes, that is a salad keeper from  Bed Bath and Beyond  and yes, those are ...