Raw Results

Last week from Monday to Friday, I participated with Stephanie @ Beautiful Mess and a few other ladies in Raw Week 2013. I ate only raw fruits, veggies & nuts/seeds from the list below for all five days and it was... interesting.

I would be absolutely lying if I said it was easy for me. I am not that healthy of an eater to begin with. I have no qualms with pulling into my beloved BoJangles (or McDonald's when the line is too long) for a biscuit and Pepsi some mornings and I drink more than two cups of coffee a day. So this was way more than just a slight change to my diet.

I just can't help myself some times.

That being said, I think it went pretty well. I only had to cheat one day (thanks to a luncheon meeting where I had to eat cooked veggies vs. raw ones) and I had a lot of energy from eating such clean, healthy stuff. Except in the mornings when I missed my caffeinated coffee boost.

The things I missed the most were random - someone popped some popcorn in the office and it took every fiber of my being not to rip the bag from their hands. I also really missed the texture of meat, like having to rip into something with my teeth (yes, I am aware of how strange and neurotic that sounds). I also drank a TON of water during the week to take the edge off when I got a little hungry between my afternoon snack & dinner.

best way to drink water? drink it out of something fun.

Here are the meals I ate:

Breakfast:
Pineapple & Strawberries
Carrots dipped in homemade hummus
Banana ice cream

Lunch:
Carrots/Broccoli dipped in homemade guacamole
Broccoli/Cauliflower dipped in homemade hummus
Plum
Banana dipped in almond butter
Apple dipped in almond butter
Corn Salad (this recipe minus the black beans)
Almonds

Dinner:
Salads with strawberries, oranges, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, almonds, pineapple and lime juice
Corn Salad mixed with guacamole on bed of lettuce
Veggies dipped in hummus

The results? I felt much more energetic, I definitely made more trips to the bathroom (if you get my drift) and I lost around 7 lbs. I was so pleased with how I felt all week (and yes, the weight loss) that I have decided to try to eat at least two raw meals a day.

busy weekend

We had a fairly busy little weekend, however the events that made it busy really deserve whole posts, so for now, a nice bullet list of weekend happenings.

• I ended #RawWeek2013 with a bang on Friday night with a very healthy helping of seafood (crab legs are my favorite), look for a post about my raw experience this week. 

• Saturday morning Sawyer went with his Mimi to see some  baby rabbits that her school's FFA is raising. 

I am in total denial about how big he looks here.

• Then I spent most of the morning and early afternoon prepping for a baby shower I helped host in Raleigh on Sunday (expect a whole post on that). 

• We took Sawyer on over to my Papa's so he could enjoy more time on his little go-kart (which he is now calling his "twuck"). And he had a ball. 

Josh guarding the hill to be sure Sawyer didn't try to fly down it into Papa's garden.

he has such a pimpin' posture while driving. 

then he decided to do doughnuts which was amazing, listen to him saying "ahhhhh" the whole time haha.

• Then we went to a graduation pig-pickin for my cousin Donald (who I call Pookie), which I will post about later this week too, that big 6 foot something young man is the "baby" of the grandkids and the only boy. 

ice cream for breakfast.

yes, you read that title correctly and no I didn't cheat on my raw diet for it. 

Thanks to this post from Come Together Kids I found on Pinterest....

It isn't really ice cream, just two bananas blended with some almond butter. Delicious, and still keeping with my raw diet!

I highly recommend it friends, highly.

haircut gone wrong.

look at this beautiful girl.

This is Cassie (just one name) and you may know her from the movie Step Up 2 or from the music world where she has hits like "Official Girl" with Lil Wayne and "The Boys" with Nicki Minaj, along with other songs.

But she's had a horrible haircut for awhile now, and I just can't get over it. Look at this:

why?! Why is this hairstyle cool? And it isn't just poor Cassie that is has been misled into thinking this is a great style...

Mel B (or in the eyes of every 90s girl, Scary Spice)

via

little Willow Smith...

via

and Lindsey Pavao from the first season of "The Voice"

Am I missing something here? is my style totally off and this is actually a great cut?

Papa Dude.

This is my Papa Dude's house. 

When I was little, this house was more than just a big white house on a hill, it was a castle, it was a fort, it was my own personal play place.

I didn't watch tv at their house because they were way too many adventures to be had outside.

the "cook house"

I'd be a princess locked in a tower calling to my prince from the balcony...

my princess balcony

..... or a soldier fighting over the land on the other side of the bridge...

my little bridge, seemed so much bigger back then...

.... or Tom Sawyer, living off the land (aka picking Papa's vegetables, something he didn't love) and fishing in the pond....

the many pathways to the pond... that is now green.

and I'd be a circus performer, doing cartwheels and flips in the giant front yard center ring, flipping and rolling  down the big hill.

I climbed trees, played in the grape vines, rode my bike all through the fields. It was my happy place.

In fact, it was such a happy place that I had both my engagement pictures and some of my wedding pictures taken there.

via Melanie Mansfield

via Melanie Mansfield

Now that Mema Kay is gone, the flowers aren't blooming as big and some of the jasmine and wisteria have taken over the two trellis archways she HAD to have in the yard. My little paved stone with my hand and foot prints isn't even visible underneath the purple wisteria flowers and roots, but I know they're there.

And Mema Kay & Uncle Kenny's ashes are encased in their own little memorial in the back where the azaleas bloom the prettiest, so it's always nice to know that even though they aren't here, part of them is always at my favorite place.

But my favorite thing is that now Sawyer enjoys it just as much as I did. My Papa Dude loves to see Sawyer running through his fields (even if he does trample things) and "driving" the tractor.

He even fixed up an old go-kart so Sawyer could drive it around...

and yes, those are wheels off my Barbie jeep...

We are so blessed to have Papa's house to have adventures at and it makes me so happy that I can now share my love for that big sprawling bit of land with my Sawyer too.

What is your happy place?

Raw Week 2013

If you follow me on Twitter (if you don't, you should) you already know that I spent some of the weekend planning for #RawWeek2013. That's right, me, miss carnivorous. the girl who couldn't even make a nice black bean salad without including cheese & venison is going to eat only the raw foods listed below for one week.

On Friday when Stephanie @ Beautiful Mess posted this challenge, I sat and looked at her blog post for about 20 minutes trying to decide if I could do this. Between the virus that attacked me, Josh & Sawyer the other weekend and my constant sinus infections, I have not been super healthy lately. So, I think this is the perfect way to sort of cleanse this ole body of mine and enjoy some clean eating for a week.

I hit up the grocery store on Saturday and got a cart load of my favorite veggies, fruits and nuts and ingredients to make homemade guacamole, Katie's black bean salad (but without the black beans) and homemade hummus (by the way, do you know how hard it is to find Tahini in small town grocery stores?!)

Then last night I packed my breakfast, lunch & snack for the day:

broccoli, homemade hummus,  almond butter, banana, grapes, kiwi, strawberries, oranges, almonds & guacamole

So, I am going to really try to make this happen! I have a yummy salad planned for tonight (spinach, oranges, sunflower seeds, cranberries, almonds, lime juice and topped with some of that corn salad (aka Katie's black bean salad with no black beans).

Have you ever tried a raw diet?

Kickoff Countdown

The countdown has begun and we are ready. Only 133 days until my East Carolina University Pirates kick off against Old Dominion University at Dowdy Ficklen Stadium!

We are starting out the season with THREE home games, woof, it's going to be rough.  Hopefully none of them will be noon-time games because that is absolutely horrible, getting up at the butt crack of dawn to go get our spot in our tailgate field, having to freeze a little bit in the morning then sweat to death come game time and all that food...and such... in the am hours? yikes.

But my favorite part of tailgates is that we get to see all our fraaands. You see, about 98% of our "crew" live in Raleigh or Knightdale, so during football season we at least have a guarantee that we're going to be able to see most of our best friends at least two weekends a month (if not more).

tailgate crew at Christmas

This year, we are going to attempt to take Sawyer to at least one game and see what happens.... I am terrified. He is not a fan of having to stay in one place for an extended period of time, but I am hoping the excitement of the game will entertain him enough for him to stay still and enjoy it. His last tailgate experience was at 7 months old... and he either slept or tried to eat pine straw the entire time... We will also have two brand new babies this year with my best friends LP & Hope both expecting babies in June and July, so hopefully we'll have some brand new Pirates at least at one tailgate!

I can hardly wait until August 31 for kickoff and the return of our favorite pastime, Pirate Football, arrgghhhh!

adventures.

With the weather finally warming up in Eastern NC, we have gotten to spend a LOT more time outside!

In March when I got my supplement check, Josh and I decided that we'd invest in a swing set sort of thing for Sawyer... and it was the best decision ever.

This child has not quit playing on it or BEGGING to play on it, and it has also gotten him to go outside more.

We went with this model because it had a ship (I told y'all, we're obsessed with all things Pirate):

like I said... best idea ever.

We also got to watch Josh play with his coworkers in the Town/Firesquad VS. Electric Department/Police softball game last week. And by watch I mean I chased Sawyer through the ballpark while Josh played softball. I even missed Josh making the game-winning hit because Sawyer was running so hard he almost made it onto the field. 

a rare calm moment during the game

Half of Sawyer's daycare friends were at the game including our amazing daycare person (aka Josh's best friend's mom) Mrs. Debbie (who the kids call "B" or "BeeBee"). So we got a great shot of them with Sparky the fire dog.

Here's to warm weather and hopes that it stays!