Dreams of gold....

Yeehaw. I had a dream I was panning for gold (we're actually going to pan for rubies in Virginia City, MO) and I found a HUGE golden bar and I could feel myself swimming across a cold shallow stream to get it... it was gravelly and I saw myself getting closer and closer.... And THEN.. my father got a hold of it and cut it in half like a piece of tofu and gave half of it to another family member and then he kept a piece. And I ran around like a crazy lady throwing a tantrum.

Leaving in less than an hour and I still have to feed the kids, bathe Jake, grab myself a shower and make sure I have everything packed because invariably, I have forgotten something. But I have managed to feed myself, feed my FB addiction and sit here staring at Spongebob being hypnotized into stupidity and sloth.

Ok, off I go. I'm going to miss my man so damn much. This will be the longest we have gone in over 2 and half years without seeing each other.. 4 whole days. WOWSers. And I'll be gone from my doggy... I hope she doesn't tear up the house when Oliver is at work.. eeeeksss...

Blabbing...

Its been almost 2 weeks since my trip to Wenatchee and my spectacular burn that turned into my great looking tan.. and I'm peeling. Just thought I'd share that.

It has been been a not so fun 2 weeks as the nausea took over and Oliver got afflicted with a nasty tooth infection. The worse part of that is he doesn't have insurance yet. I hate watching him suffer but with antibiotics that we hoard from family (for this occassion), it generally takes him 3-4 days and then it goes down. Now I'm not a big antibiotic fan but they do have their place for sure.

As from my last post, I have strayed from the vegan path and with a little more forgiveness to myself and looking at the bigger picture it helped me get past the worst. And I feel better today and *fingers, toes, eyes crossed* I feel as if it really has passed and I'm starting to feel a little zippier. *zip zip*

Let me confess my dietary sins: I had:
-Nacho's at the mall with the kids (although I swear they gobbled it faster than I could manage to sneak my fingers in for a bite at the risk of losing my fingers). It was just beans, tortilla chips, melted cheddar cheese, tomatoes, guac, sc, and olives.

-A small cheese fries from Charley's subs. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this the best. Dipped in ketchup and honey mustard. Oliver sat there and watched me eat it. He has got the will of a saint now.

- A little popcorn and yes those damn sour candies while we treated ourselves at Inception. (FANTASTIC movie btw)

-And yesterday I was MUCHO hungry, I mean I felt ravenous. I made "chicken" patties (morningstar farms) and rice with tomato slices. Jake absolutely loved it. Now I do believe this type of fake meat is not healthy but I understand its importance in people transitioning to a meat free way of life.

What I've learned:
Meat absolutely holds no appeal, I guess I still struggle with other animal products. But I feel I have come over this hump.

We both felt very sluggish after eating that fake meat and it has def prompted me to have a high raw day today.

I may have forgotten the banana in this morning's smoothie but dang it is good. I finally got my package from Vitacost in the mail yesterday. (A kid's multivamin/mineral powder for their smoothies, Hemp protein powder, coconut oil, chia seeds, jojoba oil (for my stretch marks), vegan dha supplements, chlorella, raw cashews)

OHHHHHHHHHH.... and today is the first day I'm supposed to recieve my box of organic fruits and veggies from Terra Organics.

Ok I've blabbed enough this morning. Dang I feel good. I wish everyone felt this way.

cherry madness....

Came back from Wenatchee with over 23 lbs of cherries and morning sickness. It was a sheer blast there, the heat was INCREDIBLE! I am actually tan now.

It has been a difficult week and half since coming home. Yesterday I was completely down with nausea. Out of commission and couldn't take the kids home. Oliver has a damn tooth infection and couldn't take them back either. So poor kids had to suffer through two very cranky adults.

On to my eating habits, they have been erratic. I'm finding I'm either not hungry and nauseous or ravenous and then nauseous. And I'm trying to force myself to eat at regular intervals but it is just not working out. I have backstepped into consuming some cheese. We ordered pizza the other night, thin crust with pineapple and olive. You know its really not as tasty as my brain remembers it.

I am trying to keep lots of juice in me, I am still consuming over a quart of fresh juice a day. Smoothie have lost their appeal but I am making myself drink one this morning. (Left over fruit salad, more banana, flax seeds, frozen cherries, and spinach)

And I'm disappointed in myself for having totally neglected any type of physical workout. But honestly I am just so worn out.. for having done nothing! LOL I slept 9 hours last night and I think I could go back to bed.. blah..

I know this will pass, and I'll have rebound energy and no more icky sickness. I'll just keep trying my best.

And my fingers are still purple from pitting cherries.

The weather is phenomenal....

It is actually summer here in the PNW. It gives me the opportunity to wear my cute sun dresses. Tee hee. I was chatting with someone I met on here and they asked how I was going to deal with raising a High raw-vegan baby in today's society.. *sigh*.

I had a huge grapefruit for breakfast and some of Oliver's green smoothie. (Coconut milk, spinach, frozen cranberries, flax seeds) and then another heavenly plum. I had to run to the store today to get more plums. I think I am going to turn into a plum. I am wearing a plum colored sundress today.

Then I had some kombucha tea peach flavored. I was worried about the caffeine as I usually don't have any and I researched a little bit and saw some people for and some people against Kombucha during pregnancy. I really enjoyed the refreshing beverage and I feel good. So I probably won't have anymore to be on the safe side.

I am going to be computer free this weekend. I am leaving in the morning to pick up Hanna and Ollie from Shoreline then zooming on over to Wenatchee for the weekend to visit Oliver's parents. Boohoo, Oliver can't go due to work. And I really don't like to drive on long car trips but .... oh well. I am going unplugged. Except for my cell phone of course. Going to enjoy that hot weather and I do believe we are going Cherry picking.


Happy Trails everyone. :)

Surprising the doctor...

The last few days have been pretty busy, we started to run low on food and I had one day where I didn't have any green smoothies or juices and I just felt like a wretch. I was grumpy and didn't feel energized. But then WOOO unemployment check came in and it was a mad dash for the store. Our cart was a plethora of fruits and veggies which managed to garner a few weird looks from other patrons of the store. The only cooked food I stuck into the cart was a pack of baked tofu teriyaki style. Man I wanted that.

We sped home and had this lovely meal above. It was organic spinach, organic plum, some red apple slices, avocado with fresh organic dill and a hunk of that tofu. Which turned out I wasn't that interested in the tofu.

I've been noticing an integral internal change FOR THE BETTER. I never struggled with turning vegetarian. It was a very natural switch. But I did struggle with turning vegan, cheese and butter were hard to give up. And while I have had plenty of opportunity to indulge in these vices, which were even encouraged and readily available. I found that I simply did not care about them enough to eat them. And it wasn't like it was torture. It wasn't as if "OH MY GOD I WANT THAT but I'm sticking to my resolution." It wasn't out of sheer stubbornness that I didn't eat them.

I honestly don't want them. The cravings have gone and really I was struggling with that, I was scared that being vegan would be a forced thing for me. Because nachos were just about my top 10 food (without meat of course) and while I loved my health, I felt entitled to indulge in it.
And although I aspire to more raw-ness. I am thankful for my ups and downs and weird patterns of transition. And I have to give Oliver credit for saying "Jess, just transition to vegetarian to vegan to raw" And I was all gung-ho for "NO! It has to be 100% raw or nothing" No wonder I have had a funky roller coaster ride. But its true that your body will tell you when you are ready. I don't know if it has anything to do with my 1/3 an inch visitor in the womb.. but I am thankful and I am happy. And I feel positive. And I respect myself for coming this far. And I'm excited to keep on keeping on.


We love to eat around here, I'm not trying to fool anyone. And before we took our health seriously and when we were in a pit of despair about mundane everyday issues such as finances and so forth, we sought comfort in cheap fast food. In fact, I loved eating out. Compliments of my parents growing up, restaurants were more comfortable than eating at home because we ate out SO MUCH. Now our conversations regard more about what we'd like to do together. Usually Oliver and I would talk about where we wanted to go to eat. LOL.

Moving onwards, I actually met my doctor yesterday. And I like her. I initially thought to not tell the doctor my eating habits for fear of ostracism and that general "are you crazy" look. Her reaction was "OH LET'S check your blood work"........... and............

....................................................................... results are in... Above average on everything. And she didn't seem skeptical after that. She'll do. :) Next appointment is in august and we should be able to hear the heartbeat. I am super stoked about that. I remember that feeling when I heard Jacob. And now my baby is getting to be a big brother. Awww shucks, damn hormones making me want to tear up. ok ok... moving on....

Hope everyone has a lovely day...

Breathing and letting go of things I can not change....

I do not have the ability to change people's minds. Pure and simple. My mother's outlook on "health" is a closed door. There will be no information flowing in that doesn't suit her need for cheese, meat, bread, candy, Pepsi and cigarettes. I went over to their house yesterday morning as I let Jacob spend the night. She was serving herself a HUGE serving of rice smothered in gravy with a big porkchop. I just made a funny face but reserved my comments to myself as it gets me nowhere (but partial insanity). I was super hungry and opted for a bowl of plain rice (not healthy but vegan). Then she made the comment "I hope your baby is healthy. YOU NEED a glass of milk."

*smacks forehead repeatedly* Now I've been hoovering up all the information I can here on the wonderful world wide web and I'm not a dumb person by any means. I at least made it through college and consider myself fairly rational and able to distinguish crap from not crap. And here my mother is lecturing me on how I could be hurting my unborn child and Jacob and well everyone around me for my "crazy ideas." There is no use to try and cite the research.. her retort was "You know there was a study that said organic produce wasn't any better for you." I asked her who sponsored that study... "I don't know." But pure and simple she believes it. As I believe that I am doing the best health wise for my family. I look at the very sick people around me. My mother has a host of ailments that range from weird "spells" where she loses track of time and HERSELF. My gram is on 25 different prescriptions for a LONG LONG list of ailments that are hard to spell. My father is so overweight that I cross my fingers that he doesn't have a heart attack but according to him "What a way to go!!!"

I have scarfed health books for a number of years now, I have tried to become friends with others on the same health approach and I've been tracking my calories/carbs/protein and vitamins and minerals on this site. I am healthier than I have ever been. I just have to read my dang blogs. LOL Come to think of it, we as a family haven't had a cold in forever and they always coincide with the intake of dairy!!!!

My skin is the biggest indicator. Oh how I suffered as a teenager.. It has lasting effects on my self esteem.. I was so damn ugly. LOL My mom took me to the doctor for acne. They put me on the pill, creams, antibiotics.. I went through HELL, feeling as if the scrubs were burning my face off. And the detrimental effect of ingesting antibiotics for 2 damn years. I was told.. "Its your hormones, not your diet, you'll grow out of it." What a load of BULL SHIT! Perhaps it had something to do with my unnatural fondness of anything Taco Bell, Taco time, Senor Froggy's.

And now to the biggest "proof" that what we are doing is RIGHT. Oliver is a type 1 diabetic. These last 2 weeks he has been HIGH raw and vegetarian. He is still having coffee with this powdered creamer stuff. We are talking about a VERY brittle diabetic who is used to his normal BS being high in the 200 to low 300's. And often reached very much higher and very much lower. He has had to cut his insulin intake BY HALF! Ok folks. HALF is an awful lot. He is much more stable.. no violent ups and downs. I watched this documentary about a year ago and was astonished that there were alternatives to just "dealing with it" and praying for an insulin pump. This was also about the time I discovered raw food. For the prior 2 years to that my mode of "health" thinking was to get rid of evil carbs. LMAO. Yes yes, this now vegan once did the Atkins diet. (with great success I might add.. but uggh makes me shiver) And I wasn't even EVER a big meat fan. I ate fish and chicken. AND CHEESE. GOD I did love me some cheese.

So to wrap this epic post up, I'm agonizing over how to have family understanding and cooperation. This baby WILL be vegan and WILL be high raw. There is no ifs, ands, butts about it. I wish I could have had this upbringing or at least the knowledge when I was younger. I believe that all the documentaries I have viewed should be shown in schools. Our children's eyes NEED to be opened as to where their food Truly comes from.

Rain rain go away....

I wish you wouldn't come back some day. Brr... I want the sun out. I have to go to a nurse's appointment in about 15 minutes. Just a quick brush up on yesterday's food intake.

Lunch: Was not a juice. Instead we made a HUGE green salad (Romaine, spinach, avocado, sprouts, mung bean sprouts, green apple and tahini) I also had a couple handfuls of these healthier alternative chips.. I can't remember the brand from Freddies, but had only about 4 ingredients and was whole grain... olive flavored.. It had huge chunks of olives baked right in.

Dinner: A few triscuits, sliced carrots dipped into a green dip I made ( Avocado, vegannaise, himalayan pink salt, firm tofu).

Breakfast this morning: Hemp milk, banana, a cup of soy yogurt (raspberry), raw wheat germ, and loads of spinach and a prenatal vitamin.

Snack after the nurse's appt: Juice from the picture above: Kale (beautiful isn't it?), celery, green apples and carrots

I'm going to try to aim to increase my level of raw.. as you can see I'm still leaning on the crutch of cooked food and I've been vegan here for at least a week. I've turned down cheese a couple of occassions!! (woohoo to me)

Blogging is therapy...

in a sense... I'm just letting it ALL out. Good afternoon my not so nonexistent readers. ;) Life is sunny today, I initially thought I would do all these chores around the house and projects I had in, mind and then I decided, Why not just hang out and enjoy this lovely day? I'm not employed and it is Oliver's day off. I had a great in depth conversation with my future mother in law. I've watched my son build a home for ants, I've made an interesting smoothie. I've given love to the doggy who is currently snuggled against my back taking up all my chair and I've given myself time to just unwind. Those dishes may grow mold but I'll do them later. (tee hee).

Pregnancy: A couple embarrassing sore areas that have literally grown another size over night
Skin: Good
Mood: Chill

Food intake:

Breakfast: Juice of 3 oranges, glass of water, and a bar and a half that I found last night at Top Foods. It is Oskri Organics Sesame Bar. (Not raw) It just has 3 organic ingredients: Sesame seeds, date syrup and rice syrup. It had a candy like quality. There is 3 bars in the package and I ate 1 and a half.

Then I had the opportunity to oogle and drool over a FB friend's awesome food intake. Quite delicious looking.

Morning snack: Green smoothie: A packet of Nattos raw enzymes (free sample from Marlene's), banana, flax oil, molasses, and tons and tons of spinach. How I love my spinach. Its kinda scary how much I love spinach. I have visions of a field of spinach and I'm running through it with my hair blowing in the breeze..... lol can we say CHEESY!! (Or spinachy).

Another snack: I had like 2 bites left over from the vegan broccoli slaw.

Lunch: Broccoli, carrot and apple juice.


Here is a great article I found through my many blogs that I am sinfully addicted to. Cheers and hope everyone has had a lovely day.

"You're gonna get FAT" *giggle*

Good morning nonexistent readers of my blog.. ;) I feel fabulous today. Picked up the kids yesterday and they are happy about the impending addition to the family, Oliver was worried they might not be happy but I'm super glad he was wrong. Jake is 5 and spoiled and he's pretty much "whatever." Hanna has been constantly wondering if it will be a girl and how she can help teach the baby to talk.. kinda makes me weepy with happiness...I'm really hoping for a girl.. but its 50/50 and I'm just glad to have this experience. I'm not the nervous first time pregnant mama. I love that I have discovered how to take charge of my own health and how I've traversed the road of nutrition in discovering a raw/vegan lifestyle. I am not 100%raw and I've slipped the last 6 months but I am 100% vegetarian and there is NO threat to that.

My family was surprised I am continuing "this way" of eating now that I'm pregnant. My sister looked on the verge of calling Child Protective Services for saying that the baby WILL be 100%vegan from the get go and high raw from there. Jake is harder not to control but to help educate about health. He has so many conflicting family members. Between time with his dad and other family and MY family.. they feel meat (and doughnuts, chips, candy,pop) is important. He continues to turn meat down at every offer and he does not seem unhappy about it. In fact, he seems to have a healthy confidence about his food choices. When he is with me, he eats loads of fresh fruits and veggies. Sometimes he's not so happy about the veggie part but its important he is exposed to a variety of raw foods. I wish I could impose a high raw vegan lifestyle on Hanna, Ollie and Jake but because their other family counteracts that to the point of FORCING them to eat meat. Hanna told me the other day she wanted to eat less meat but her mom forced her to eat all the meat on her dinner plate. I let them choose when they are with us.. for example we all went out to Pho a while back. We all had tofu (Jake and Hanna included) and Ollie chose beef. I don't tell them what they have to eat but I'm hoping through modeling and explaining why Dad and I have made these choices, they will be able to make their own INFORMED decisions regarding food.

I don't even want to get started on what their school serves and how that will be a pain in my ass and then we have their peers and their influence. Yikes. It will take some tricky navigation, explaining and PATIENCE. :)


So I told the kids I would make them lunch in 15 minutes after I'm done ranting on here and Ollie and Hanna both asked specifically for a green smoothie. I must be doing something right.

I didn't exercise the last two days and I feel like a blob but I'm going to take a very long walk and then do some yoga later. Friday was a not good day for eating. I was at my parents house ALL day long. I had a bag of microwave popcorn, a bagel (no milk or animal products) with fresh strawberry jam and a lil pb. My mom made mashed potatoes and meatloaf for dinner. It made me very queasy to smell.

I opted for mom to give me a couple boiled potatoes before she mashed it with milk and sourcream. Jake had it mashed but passed up the meatloaf. I had a cup of lima beans with it but I didn't know she used margarine in it until after. Then we all went for a walk and went down to the local produce shop. I got fresh cherries, an avocado and kettle chips (salt and vinegar).


Today I've had:

Breakfast: 1 qt of kale, celery, carrot and green apple juice

Lunch: Couple pieces for firm tofu, half an avocado and my vegan broccoli slaw

The curse of the neighbors....

My neighbors to the right of us.. love meat. They so love their meat. They are always frying something that has been slaughtered. Now once upon a time, I would have loved that smell. But really all it takes is a few weeks of consciously choosing to live a compassionate lifestyle free of animal flesh and that smell quickly turns rancid. And now... with my super honed in sense of smell that's due to my sesame seed bundle of joy, its extra gross smelling. I can not IMAGINE ever eating meat. I am more dedicated and have found it the easiest choice I have made regarding my health and my family's health. Both Oliver and mostly Jake choose to remain meat free. Gosh it stinks in my house because I love to have my windows open for fresh air.. but all I'm getting is "meat air!"

Ok enough of my ranting for this morning. On to my newly pregnant changes taking place. Overall I feel GREAT! I notice I am getting fatigued more often. I took a 20 minute walk yesterday with the dog and I was kinda worn out after that and had to rest. No morning sickness (knock on wood), my skin is still looking good, stomach is still bloated. I was a little crampy yesterday but nothing that worried me. The one nasty side effect is my breasts are super duper sore, I mean REALLY sore. Downright shooting pains and I don't want anything touching them, bra included.

I'm going to hang out with my family today and I'm really looking forward to that. So I'm off to make a juice which I am actually desperately craving.... mmmm juice!!! How I love thee.