The Concert!

I can't believe I forgot to post about the concert before I posted about the Christmas Party! LOL! We went to the greatest concert I've ever attended last Thursday night. It was awesome!!! And it felt SO great to jump around without being 50 pounds heavier! And my feet never did start hurting. Wow. So we got to see Storyside B, who's local, but now they're big famous stars in the Cristian music scene. We also got to see Sanctus Real, Aaron Shust (LOVE him), and Toby Mac. Seriously, we had the most incredible time!!! It was Toby Mac's Winter Wonder-Slam tour. Greg likes Aarron Shust as well and he's a huge Toby Mac fan. So he was having so much fun! Delaney went with us and knew over half the songs! :o) She had a blast too! They even sang a few Christmas songs!! Here's some pics, although fuzzy since they were taken with the camera phone. ;o)


Here's my lovely little sister and I

Here's Aaron Shust signing an autograph. We were next, so Delaney now has an autographed framed picture of him in the playroom!
And here we are with him!!! He's amazing!
So, bottom line, we got to see 4 wonderful musicians/groups in one night & we were right up front jamming and worshiping God for about 3 hours! It was so awesome!!! I wish we could do something like that every week!

A Christmas party

Greg had his company Christmas party last night & it was such fun! We got to buy new clothes to get dressy & even posed for pictures when we dropped the girls off at my sister's house! What a blast!! The company Greg works for is just phenomenal! He couldn't ask for a better job, boss, or group of people to work with. It was so amazing to be able to see that first hand last night!

We were able to get a bit of salad from the buffet line & some fresh fruit from the dessert area. When we returned to our seats we saw that they had a special plate of fresh raw vegetables just for the two of us. A huge plate of red, yellow, and green bell pepper spears, yellow squash spears, and zucchini spears, along with carrot sticks, the freshest broccoli I've ever seen and grape tomatoes! It was laid out on an oval plate like fireworks! One plate for each of us! It was gorgeous! And we were so full we couldn't finish it all! The cooked food buffet was very nice, and we could tell it was gourmet, but we didn't feel deprived at all. They were so thoughtful and kind to do that for us! I usually don't like being singled out for anything, but I just put a positive mental spin on it & looked at it the way they intended it. Which of course was as a nice gesture to make sure we felt included. It really was appreciated, let me tell you!!

What else was wonderful is that no one seemed to feel that food was the point of the evening. So many times the celebrations in our society are all about the food. This was really about celebrating and getting to know the spouses of the co-workers and all that. The food was like an afterthought. And I could tell it wasn't just Greg & I that felt that way. Everyone was having a great time & oh yeah, there's food as well. I loved that!!

Did I mention that I wasn't nervous about my size and appearance walking into that group of strangers? Did I mention that I was not the biggest girl there? Did I mention that my shyness was kept reasonably in check and I was more friendly than quiet? Did I mention that I glanced at a mirror at one point and saw myself at a side view and I didn't feel anything? I just glanced at myself and got back to listening to whoever was talking. I didn't dwell on anything bulging out, or start sucking anything in. I didn't think some terrible negative thought about myself. Now, I didn't feel any great thought either (like- oh look at me, aren't I getting cute) I'm not sure I'll ever be like that! Actually, I hope I never get like that. ;o) But I was content to just not have a thought! To concentrate on everything else but myself, positive or negative. I think this paragraph describes a breakthrough ladies & gentlemen!!!!!! Yes indeed! YAY!

Oh, on another note- Greg has a new work wardrobe! He finally had to get new pants. He was wearing a 40 waist all this time & when we went to see what size to buy and he began trying them on, we were shocked to find out he's now a 34 waist! No wonder those pants were looking so baggy! I think he knew he needed new ones, but with money always being tight, he just overlooked it. Whereas I had hand-me-downs around from generous friends & family and I could just try on a new size any time I felt the need. So next, we have to find Greg some new casual pants, like jeans! We did get him a sweater, a long sleeved shirt, and 2 polo shirts. All those can be work or casual. And of course he has one dress up outfit now! ;o)

4 months raw!!!!

WooHoo! We've been 100% raw 4 months! I'm so excited!

There's not a drastic change this month, but there are differences. It's like our bodies slowed down a little on the weight loss, but changes are still happening. For instance, my clothes fit looser enough to need a smaller size, even though the weight didn't drop dramatically in the last 30 days. And of course we're feeling very healthy! I've been tired lately, which I attribute to not eating nearly enough. I've already begun correcting that!

Greg now weighs 178 pounds, he released 7 pounds this past month for a grand total of 62 pounds so far in 4 months!! :o)
I now weigh 215 pounds and I released 7 pounds this month for a grand total of 54 pounds down so far!! :o) I'm down 5.25 inches during last month for a total of 51 inches!!

We're both filled with gratitude that God brought us to this path and has blessed this journey so abundantly. It's truly amazing, and we're really enjoying this transformation, inside & out. It feels wonderful to be lined up in obedience with what He wants us to be doing!








I also wanted to say that we've had to stop all junk food for the kids. We were letting them eat cheese pizza during parties, and goldfish crackers at church, cake at parties, etc. But, it's gotten very hard to help them understand our conviction while at the same time continually compromising. So, they are allowed to have cooked vegan foods once, sometimes twice a week. So far that's been like a wrap at our health food store each Saturday, and maybe some plain brown rice while there. When we go out on our date night every other Friday night, they have cooked veggies with sea salt. Other than these exceptions, they're all raw. Amazingly, it's been easier to handle it this way, than when they were eating raw mostly and then eating junk here and there. Even our 3 year old hands out any candy they give her in her Sunday School class to other kids. It seems like having the clear guidelines made it simpler for them to get used to! It's been so harmonious, I'm glad we tried it the more relaxed way, but I'm very thankful we've progressed to this instead, as it works much better for our kids!

Another birthday!

Here's the pics of my oldest daughter's birthday cakes! The first is a raw chocolate torte, which I bought from the closest raw restaurant. It was $60!!! It has some chili powder in it for a very yummy flavor combination. Good thing I made another "cake" though as some folks didn't care for the chili powder. She decorated the torte herself!!
This one is a double recipe of Raw Priestess's brownies shaped into a circle with Erin's store bought frosting times 5, since the recipe is for a tiny amount.
So all the guests said they liked my younger daughter's cake better last month!!!!! What? That torte cost $60! The brownies were quick and easy and not nearly as expensive. But wow. I never expected them to like the strawberry almond one better. I guess I really was the only one who didn't enjoy it! Greg LOVED this birthday much more because he is a chocolate freak!

But my precious 6 year old was happy though & she enjoyed her 2 cakes. ;o) As well as leftovers for 2 more days! So she was NOT disappointed and that was SO important to me. I didn't want to let her down.

And how in the world did she get to be 6 anyway? My heart hurts if I think too long about it. Incredible.

Our first raw Thanksgiving!

Our breakfast fruit salad. :o) We ate this during the Macy's parade. The ingredients were my oldest daughter's idea, except the pomegranate, that was my addition.
Marinated portabello mushrooms! YUM!
The cranberry salad from Alissa's book p298
Marinated crimini mushrooms for the kids.
Alissa's mock turkey loaf with the sauce on the side. p 393 YUM!
Maraw's southern corn nut dressing. This was everyone's favorite!!
Maraw's pumpkin pie. This was yummier than any cooked pumpkin pie, seriously!

It was a success! Our first holiday without the traditional dead food! Freedom!!!!!

King Vita-Mix!

I forgot to update about what my surprise was! A Vita-Mix! The king of all blenders, with a motor as powerful as a lawnmower!! I've wanted one for so long. And it was a surprise!

I was going to have to do the 3 payment plan on their website (although I really wanted to order from Alissa's store). So I was going to place that order today for the 5000 model, and was crossing my fingers that it would get here before Thanksgiving.

So Wednesday night my mom called me from Sam's club (where I don't have a membership) and asked if this price for a Vita Mix sounded the same, I said yep, same as Costco (where I do have a membership) and same as the Vita Mix website. Then a light bulb went off- I asked, it's the 4500 model right? She said no, it's the 5000!!!! With the extra dry container at a lower cost as well!!

God bless them, they bought it for me & are letting me make the monthly payments to them instead!! Woo Hoo! By getting it at a lower price and saving the shipping costs they literally saved me over $80 easily. So I won't even have to take 3 months to pay them back, maybe 6 weeks at the longest. The demonstration was only going on till Sunday here- I'm so glad they stopped by Sam's!

I was/am SO excited, I woke up Wednesday & didn't have a Vita Mix & I went to sleep that night having one! WOW! And yes, just the little I've done so far shows me it's well worth the money! I got to put a whole entire peeled orange in my smoothie at lunch yesterday! Incredible! And my almost 6 yr old finally enjoyed a green smoothie! That alone is worth it.

We can let it run for a few minutes and the darn thing is so powerful it will warm up soup without cooking it! Raw warm soup!! I'll be able to get so many of our recipes really smooth finally! And raw ice cream too! I just about killed my food processor making ice cream from frozen bananas. Now it'll be a cinch! So far I've made 5 of the smoothest green smoothies ever, and sesame chocolate mylk! It sounds silly to say that a blender can change your life, so I won't go that far. LOL! But really, this does change a lot for us! We're all excited about it!!

Here are the girls having the sesame chocolate mylk!

3 Months Raw!!

So it's been 3 months! I'm so excited!! WOW!!!

Let me get right to it: Greg is now 185 pounds. That means he's released 55 pounds!!! :o)

I now weigh 222, which means I've released a total of 47 pounds. In the past month, I'm down 10 more pounds and 13.25 more inches! On with the photos--





I'll have to post more later, it's so late right now it's already tomorrow! My parents brought over a lovely surprise tonight & that's what kept me from posting earlier. I can't wait to tell everyone about it, but it'll have to wait till sunrise!!! :o)

12 weeks!

We started this journey 12 weeks ago today! It won't be officially 3 months until next Tuesday, but I wanted to check in and give an update! :o) As of Sat I've released 47 pounds. I won't lie, I wish it was melting off faster than that, but how can I complain? I know those are good results for 12 weeks. I just want it gone so badly! Greg's released 52 so far.

I did a 4 day water fast last week. My first time ever! It was amazing- I did it for spiritual reasons, and felt very blessed! However, by the end of it, I was craving cooked food like crazy, for the first time since starting this. I gained perspective though. It's been very easy for me so far, and now I'm reminded of what Greg's experiencing every day. I'm even more impressed with his commitment, and his resolve. My cravings are passing now, and I'm so glad!! It didn't feel fair to do something good for my spirit but have my flesh cry out like that! I guess that's the way it works though.

My youngest daughter's birthday was Thursday! She turned 3. Where does the time go?! We had her little family party Friday evening and I made a strawberry almond cake. I think I liked it the least of everyone. Hopefully they were being honest. I tried to make chocolate "ice cream" as well but forgot to process the cashews first, just threw it all together and processed. So it was chunky. Most folks didn't like that at all. Oh well! Many a baker messed up their first baked cakes right? I can't be too hard on myself! But I really didn't want to let my daughters down. The oldest one turns 6 in 3 weeks, so she's next! Here's pic of the cake...



She & her sister seemed to enjoy it, but I know it could've been better. It also cost about $30 or so in ingredients and I spent 4 hours in the kitchen. I know I need more practice at this! My results are not typical! LOL!

Oh, Halloween! I bet you're wondering how that went. Our girls are used to full blown trick or treating (with 3/4 of the candy disappearing mysteriously during the night, never to be seen again). Well, we decided to go to a church festival, who said they would hand out candy at the end of the night so kids wouldn't be eating it all evening. Sounds good! They did give them a tiny bit of candy early in the night, which my girls gave to their cousins. They knew that at the end of the festival they could choose 2 pieces of candy apiece. They were fine with it. One of the pieces that my oldest chose was a full size Baby Ruth candy bar. I told her that wasn't Halloween sized, and to please just eat about 2 bites. She did, and I've been lazy and haven't thrown the rest away yet, it's up on a shelf. But she hasn't asked for more. I'm so proud of them! They did eat popcorn during the festival, but no hot dogs, or snow cones, etc. We concentrated on it being a fun night, not a candy night. Oh, by the way, that night was day 4 of my water fast. UGH! Those hot dogs smelled divine. YUCK! I knew what was in them, but still!!! I just drank water.... It feels good to know I'm in control though and NOT the food. Freedom!!!

2 Months RAW!!!

Yesterday was 2 months raw, 9 weeks tomorrow! I'm excited to post the stats, so I'll get right to it!! Greg now weighs 200 pounds! That's 16 pounds released this month, and 40 pounds total in 2 months! I weigh 232 now, 14 pounds released in the last month, and 37 pounds total in 2 months!!

I'm down 16.5 inches in this past month alone! Including a whole inch just from my neck, which is crazy! Not so much that it's gone, but that it was there - yuck! So that's 32.5 inches so far. :o)

Here are the photos! I couldn't wear the same outfit again (oh darn) because the pants were falling down! So, on to new, smaller clothes- woo hoo!




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!

Thank you for reading! And thank you for the support!! :o)

Week 8 & feeling great!

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!