For me, raw food is an essential part in staying eating disorder free. There was honestly a time when I knew the eating disorder I was struggling with was dangerous. Not only did it have physical consequence, but also it kept me from maturing emotionally. I would be stuck in the same place until I pushed myself to heal. Being thin was much more important that my physical and emotional health. I could read articles about how dangerous anorexia and bulimia are, but the importance of my health wasn’t enough to bring me to my senses. So what’s the point in spending a lot of money and time with a counselor or psychiatrist so they can tell you that you are damaging your body when you already know that, but aren’t ready to do anything about it? I spent years unraveling my past with several different counselors, but in the end, I still obsessed over what I ate. Maybe it wasn’t only my past that was giving me issues with food.

Read more on The Ins and Outs of Loving Your (Raw) Food…

It is funny that I mentioned yesterday’s post as another day on the wagon. Today’s inspirational email talked about just that! There is no way to ever fall of the wagon. Each day is getting you closer to success as long as you are still trying. Copying from the email: “Commit to long term success and one day you’ll simply wake up to realize you’ve already achieved it”. Here is another inspiring tip from today’s email I would like to share: “You didn’t learn how to walk overnight. It took a long time to figure it out without falling, but here you are now. Just like learning to walk, you’re engaged in a process, a journey”. In yesterday’s post I talked about using this challenge as a way to grow and learn more about myself rather than berate myself because I couldn’t follow each day as planned. I will celebrate with each smoothie and know that I am doing so many good things for myself. I don’t want to negate this attitude (because so much of our healing comes with positive thoughts and feelings) by worrying too much about not making the exact smoothie or evening meal provided in the meal plan. How great would it be to go to a place for 21 days where your smoothies and dinner are waiting for you? On the fasting days (today is the second recommended fasting day), all of your activties are scheduled and you are less likely to think about food? That sounds like part of my raw food fairytale. Maybe one day I can spend time at a place like that because they do exist!

Read more on Day 7 ~ Green Smoothie Detox Journal…

As much as I love the fact that I have so many more greens, especially blended greens added into my menu each day, I have seriously been wondering if it is just my life right now or if most everybody’s life is busy enough that following a eating plan (even for 21 days) is even possible. It takes thought, it takes commitment, planning, and sometimes the surrender of normal activities. No wonder I could never follow a diet! But this is not a diet, this is a choice I have made to bring me back to being aware of the benefits of green food. So don’t loose heart all of you who try to follow the advice of some successful eating guru, but fall off of the wagon more than you would like. I do really think that this 21-day Green Smoothie Challenge/Detox is an awesome program. There are many aspects to it that I wouldn’t want to miss. I am aware of what I eat and drink, and I am feeling really good because all of the greens I am consuming! The creators of this challenge have a great program, and I think that if I were in a different place in my life with food (looking for a new way to eat because of not being happy with how I eat), I might be more likely to adhere to the program a bit more closely to teach myself of unsurpassed benefits of raw food. These benefits will not only come from the food choices, but also rest and finding new life and a new way of living. When I first turned to raw food several years ago, I found this freedom and emotional rest from constant worry over food. I discovered how to carry on and live my life without the fear of food ruling over my days. With that being said, maximizing (eating as many greens as I can) my green intake is what I need right now to get me out of a raw food slump. In my opinion, it is easy to get lazy and go for the processed raw food snacks than focus on our fruits and vegetables. I can compare it to babies sleeping. Sleep begets sleep. This is something that I learned when my children were babies. When they were overtired, they had a harder time falling asleep. When they were on a good sleep schedule, sleep came very easily at naptime or bedtime. With eating, the more sugary or fatty foods you eat, the more you crave it. When you are eating more whole fruits and veggies, these are what you want to eat more and more of. Good eating begets good eating. Think about this when you are having cravings. Does one piece of chocolate really cure that craving for good? No, you will crave it over and over again. Where ever you are with your eating, healthy and happy or not, I think that taking the chance to become more aware of our eating through a challenge from time to time is a great thing. I love getting emails knowing that so many others are on this challenge and becoming more aware as well. Maybe they have a bit more time to prepare each day of the plan or maybe they have a life like mine and the benefits of a green smoothie quart each day and inspirational emails is improving my life ten-fold. Whatever it is, we need support to eat well. And unfortunately, we can’t always get it from our friends or loved ones. If you find yourself getting hung up on dieting, I recommend that you try this challenge and take it in stride. Enjoy it, don’t fret because you couldn’t follow a meal. Sometimes, a smoothie is planned as the next meal, but I find I need to sit down and eat my greens. The oral satisfaction of eating from a fork or crunching on a carrot is satisfying. I know this because I have taken the time to think about what I need.

Read more on Day 6 ~ Green Smoothie Detox Journal…

Days 4 & 5 of my detox/challenge have been great. I was able to make more of an emotional commitment to my green smoothies. On day 4, I had a pint size mason jar of my favorite chard-mango (recipe on day 1) smoothie mid-morning. For lunch, I finished the green soup from the day before. It actually tasted much better to me the second time around. Just because it is a raw, green soup doesn’t mean that you can’t heat it up a bit. I just put the leftover soup into a sauce pan and turned the heat down low until it was slightly warm. Raw foods maintain their integrity and enzymes when heated below 118 degrees. If our normal body temperature is 98.6 degrees, you can safely heat your soup (or raw foods) above body temperature. That really is a better temperature for your body to digest and assimilate the nutrients from your food rather than really hot food. Soup heated to or near 118 degrees is perfectly warming, even on a cold day. My goals with the green smoothies or soups is to consume 1 qt. per day. This is very reasonable. Along with that, I am eating whatever fruits or vegetables, nuts, and seeds I need to get enough calories. As I have mentioned, this challenge has a menu plan, but because I am not new to raw foods, I am not keeping to it exactly. If I were new to raw foods, I think it is a great menu plan! I am focusing on the fruits and vegetables and minimizing the fats during this green smoothie detox/challenge. I am pretty active because of my lifestyle of being a mom and living in a very active-lifestyle friendly place, but my energy has definitely increased with the increase in blended greens and decrease in nuts, so I know I am getting enough. It is typical for an active raw foodist to over-consume nuts looking for protein and calories. Many people are not aware that greens have an abundance of readily available essential amino acids. I am not going to get scientific here now, but in my next journal post, I will elaborate on the protein found in dark, leafy greens.

Read more on Days 4 & 5 ~ Green Smoothie Detox Journal…

I am combining days 2 and 3 into one journal entry because yesterday was so BUSY! I didn’t have one minute to jot down a quick journal entry or even hardly take time to read my Raw Diva emails. But I did drink my greens! It was one of those days where I had a great start, but then the middle of the day was so hectic I had to have a regular lunch and jump back on the wagon at dinner with a great salad and green soup or savory as the Raw Divas call it. I much prefer the green smoothies to green savories. I admit, I love fruit. I am finding that the recommended smoothie for both breakfast and lunch is not enough to get me through until dinner time. I need and a few snacks. This might be because I am not using as much fruit in my smoothies as some of the menu plans suggest. I find myself wanting to have fruit for a snack. Over the next few days, I am going to work towards adding making the smoothies bigger by adding more fruit. But the ONE thing I keep coming back to each night before bed and morning when I wake is that cutting the fat and sugar makes such a HUGE difference in how I feel. I feel light and energetic. Never too full, but always satisfied. I know my body will get its needed rest and repair while I am sleeping. Our bodies need to repair at night, and when we eat heavy meals before bedtime, our bodies are busy with digestion, not healing.

Read more on Day 2 & 3 ~ Green Smoothie Detox Journal…