You know, I just have to praise the Lord for bringing this way of life to us! And He's given us the strength and zeal to stick with it! He has blessed this process & I'm so thankful to Him for that!
I still haven't had any major cravings at all! Greg is having less. That truly feels like a gift to me! If you're not raw, please imagine for a moment giving up all cooked food. Not just junk food, but all meat, all pasta, all bread and even cheese!! It really is a huge thing to do! So many of our celebrations revolve around food, our holidays, childhood memories, good old comfort food. It's amazing how ingrained it is into our lives. To give that up and step away from the norm, is something I never wanted to do! And I know I couldn't be doing it now without God's help. That reassures me that we are on the right path! He's given us such a peace about it all.
Saturday the 13th will be 2 months officially, so I'll check weight and measurements then. But we've still been releasing weight, and feeling better each day!
Friday night we finally got an Excalibur 9 tray dehydrator! Woo hoo! That's THE dehydrator that the experts recommend. Then we spent some time Saturday and Sunday, in between all of our errands and 2 church services, making a cover for the stove. If we didn't do that, we'd have no place to put this huge new appliance! Our small inexpensive dehydrator sits right next to it. I'm so happy with how that turned out! We used MDF cut to fit, rounded the corners facing out, then put a 1x1 on each side of the stove underneath the board to anchor it in place. That way it won't slide around. It's really sturdy, and fits perfectly. I painted it with high gloss paint so it'll be easy to clean. I'll take a picture so you can all see:
I can't wait to make some raw pizza crusts, crackers, and breads! If you use live ingredients, and dehydrate lower than 118 degrees, it's raw! Yum, I can't wait! I'll even be able to make raw cakes or brownies for my daughter's upcoming birthdays! We have many more possibilities available to us now!
The girls have been raw except at church, where they have cheese pizza. This past Saturday they had cake for the first time in 8 weeks, at a friend's birthday party. Wow, it took 2 more days for them to get that out of their system. I knew they were acting better since going raw, but having all of that processed stuff and sugar in them showed me just how much better they had been! And they were never bad, but suddenly they had meltdowns, and behavior issues Saturday afternoon, Sunday & finally starting getting back to themselves Monday afternoon! Amazing! Thank goodness they didn't have soda!!! They stuck with water, since I asked them to. Weekends like that are just going to be part of life though. I don't want them to feel like outsiders at their friend's parties. It doesn't happen all the time, anyway. During other events, they've been super about making healthy choices. Delaney apologized to me about the cake during the party
while eating her cupcake. I told her not be sorry at all, to enjoy her food. It was her choice to eat that, and I was proud of her for all the great healthy choices she makes the rest of the time. I mean, if she's going to eat something else, at least enjoy it. The LAST thing I want to do is have them associating food with any feelings other than health & un-health. Like guilt, or deprivation. I've dealt with so many issues with food. I want to avoid that with my daughter's - not create it. I pray that never happens.
I'm feeling chatty, so I'll tackle another issue we've been discussing as well! Greg feels like there should be more balance with this. He thinks he should be able to eat cooked food and meat sometimes. I don't know how that fits into his conviction that God wants us to eat all raw. I do know how it fits in with mine. It doesn't! I know that God has put it on my heart to be 100% raw vegan, and to disobey that, would lead to problems for my health, and peace of mind. I'm so much more spiritual when the toxins from processed food and cooked food is not coming into my body! Everything is clearer. No mental fog! I also know for a fact that if I started to eat those foods again, even healthy ones, it would turn into a landslide, right back into junk food and no self control. I was addicted, but Greg wasn't. So he's thinking perhaps that's my truth. He's not sure about that for him. I do know that if you're putting those foods into your body, even in small quantities, your body can't cleanse and heal like it is at 100% raw. It also, from what I've read, makes cravings go through the roof. That would be hard for him to handle, since he's battled cravings since week 2. For now he's committed to 100%, and he continues to pray about this question. I know God will lead us in the right direction!
It feels good, let me tell you! To know that weight is being released, and health is being gained! I just know all sorts of things are healing inside our bodies!
