Detox 2

I've been incorporating more raw foods into the kids' diets. They've always eaten raw foods every day, but mostly as snacks. Now I'm serving them as meals too. Above is Friday's lunch for the kids. Below is Matthew's breakfast from Friday.

 

Now for an update on my detox diet.

 

Friday's meals consisted of Essiac tea first thing in the morning, and a plum & cherries & some prunes for breakfast.

 For lunch, I had to go to the store to restock on veggies and fruit and also bought olive oil to make some dressing. So I had a salad mix with bell pepper and cucumber slices, sunflower seeds, and topped it with a dressing of olive oil, basalmic vinegar, and garlic sea salt. I also had a few chunks of kiwi and some watermelon!

For Friday's dinner, my husband wanted to go to Shoney's for the seafood buffet. I ate raw broccoli, shredded carrot, grape tomatoes, cucumber slices, and grapes, no dressing. It was not pleasant. And I did not get a picture.

Then we took Ella and Matthew to the play ground and played and then went to Books a Million where I ordered a grande chai tea with soy milk and made up for my nasty dinner.

 

Then as planned, I woke up Saturday and my raw diet was on break. I had my essiac tea, then a banana and cocoa almonds. Then for lunch, we went to the community barbeque, where I didn't get a picture, but I ate fried cornbread, coleslaw, baked beans, red potatoes, cake with peanutbutter icing, and sweet tea. *Big Smile* It was sooooo good!

 

Ella and Matthew enjoyed icecream cones for their dessert.

Then for dinner, we had more of the same, minus the dessert and cornbread. That's homemade barbeque sauce on my slaw, potatoes and beans there.

 

Sunday morning, I woke up and had essiac tea, and an apple with peanutbutter. Then for lunch, I had a salad, and finished off some left-over cole slaw, and baked beans.

 

And for dinner, I baked a wild caught salmon and ate a piece with lemon, onion, green beans, toast, and a mix of "field peas, snaps, and vidalia onions" that came in a can from Publix. It was yummy by the way.

 

So I am still on a detox diet break as we have a birthday party to go to tonight, but I plan on eating raw, whole foods the rest of the day up to the party.

Detox 1

Detoxing has been on my mind lately, and as I am in the process of doing a detox, I plan to share what I am doing. This has been a process for me. It started with my husband banning sunscreen use for my family about 5 years ago due to the cancer causing chemicals found in it and studies that show people who use sunscreen are more likely to get skin cancer than people who do not. Then about 4 years ago, I became a vegetarian in order to reduce my risk of cancer, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and the list goes on and on and on, really. The process continued with stopping vaccines due to the toxic chemicals and metals in them and the fact that many carry a greater risk than the diseases themselves. About a year and a half to two years ago, I stopped using antipersperant due to the aluminum in it which has been linked to breast cancer among other things. Somewhere in the past 2-3 years I started making all my own household cleaners such as glass cleaner, surface cleaner, bathroom cleaner, laundry detergent, etc to avoid the toxic chemicals found in commercial products. Then about 3 months ago, my friends began introducing me to herbal remedies and salve making. So I started a business called Garden Blends by Senae making all natural body care products. You can see my facebook page here. Finally, 13 days ago, I decided to go "Poo free" and give up shampoo and conditioner! Afterall, what's the point of all the other stuff if you're dumping chemicals on your head every other day!?!?!?! And this week, I began drinking Essiac Tea twice a day and eating all raw foods. I want to share what my raw diet has looked like for others who think raw = starvation. I've been feeling mostly full during this process. I have had 2 exceptions to raw foods that I'm "allowing" myself. One is high protein tortillas. The other is taboulli salad which has cracked wheat in it, which I think is probably pre-cooked. A picture of the tortillas is below. They were $3.19 for five tortillas at Publix. That's pretty expensive compared to other tortillas, but they were the highest in protein (13g)  and only had 3g of fat.

 

Below is salad made with Artisan lettuce, tomato, mushroom, bell pepper, sunflower seeds, raisins. For dressing, I squeezed some lemon juice on it and sprinkled some balsamic vinegar on it. It was not very pleasant. I was out of olive oil though, which probably would have been much tastier. I ate this while my husband and children were eating whole grain tortilla chips with spinach & artichoke dip, white beans, and soup.

 

Below is my cheat and oh so filling and yummy! It's one of those tortillas I mentioned topped with raw spinach, a chopped tomato, and tabouli salad. I fold one side over like a taco and pick it up to eat it.

 Below is what I ate while my family ate spinach spaghetti lasagna . . . A salad with bell pepper, and mushroom, and a chopped raw carrot. I drizzled this with grapeseed oil & cracked some garlic & sea salt on top. It was tastier than my salad from Monday.

 

 

I cooked this dinner for my family to eat while I ate that salad above. It's Barilla Plus pasta topped with steamed spinach, cottage cheese, shredded cheese, an onion, and pasta sauce and more shredded cheese then baked! I couldn't bear the temptation and wound up eating like 5 bites of it!!! :( WHoops!

 

 

My family also had chocolate cupcakes and chocolate icing from a friend. I also had 4 bites of a cupcake too. :*( Double Whoops!!

 

So today is a new day, and I'll be making up for my slip ups last night. I plan to eat a raw diet for 2 more days (today and tomorrow). I'll be drinking my Essiac tea til it runs out. It'll probably last about a month. I may eat a raw diet on and off during that time, but there are a few events coming up that will have food that I refuse to miss out on. Like our yearly community Barbeque on Saturday with fried cornbread (made by my husband's grandmother), homemade coleslaw, baked beans, red potatoes, dessert, and sweet tea. This is one meal I look forward to all year long. I skip the BBQ pork, which used to be my biggest weakness! I haven't had it in about 3 years now.

 

Ok, now I'm going to post my entire diet for the past 3 days so you can see how one can stay full on raw foods. If you were to have a nutritionist dissect it, I'm sure it's lacking. This is not my recommendation; it's just what I have done personally.

 

Monday:

Breakfast- Essiac tea, wait 20 min, Banana, almonds

Snack: Apple

Lunch: Plum, apple w natural peanutbutter

Dinner: Essiac tea, wait 10 min, Artisan lettuce, 1/2 tomato, mushroom, sunflower seeds, raisins, raw corn, 1/4 of an onion, lemon juice, balsamic veinegar

Dessert: 2 handfuls raisins and peanuts, and a peach (I went to bed hungry this night. I should've eaten more during the day I think.)

 

Tuesday:

Breakfast: Essiac tea, wait 20 min, smoothie- frozen raspberries, blueberries, & strawberries, almond milk, spinach, banana, and coconut milk

Snack: Peanuts, plum, carrot

Lunch: Tortilla topped with spinach, tabouli salad, and 1 tomato cut into chunks + trail mix I made with peanuts, raisins, sunflower seeds, and almonds + 3 prunes, and a popsicle I made by freezing my breakfast smoothie in a popsicle mold.

Snack: Apple with natural peanutbutter

Dinner: Essiac tea, wait 10 min, Artisan Salad, 1/2 bellpepper, grapeseed oil, sea salt & pepper

Dessert: Another popsicle from breakfast smoothie

 

Wednesday:

Breakfast: Essiac Tea, wait 20 min, peach, grapes, my trail mix

Lunch: Tortilla topped with spinach, tabouli salad, 1 chunked tomato, + a few slices each of peach, pear, plum, and some grapes.

Snack: My trail mix, 2 crab apples, and a fig
Dinner: 1 carrot, 1/2 bellpepper, salad mix, mushroom, grapeseed oil, grapes, 2 apples with natural peanutbutter (and this is the night I slipped up and ate some spaghetti lasagna and cupcake!)

Thursday:
Breakfast: Essiac tea, wait 20 minutes, banana, peanuts, sunflower seeds, plum
Lunch: Apple with natural peanutbutter, and a small glass of Green Goodness smoothie (Bolthouse Farms)
Dinner: Essiac tea, wait 10 min, I made guacamole by mashing up an avocado and adding in sea salt, raw garlic & red onion,  a few chunks of tomato, and a little lime juice. I used it as a dip for orange, red, and green bell pepper slices. + another small glass of Green Goodness Smoothie, and a handful of almonds.

 

Today I was not hungry during the day, which is usually the case. At dinner I was very hungry, but I was able to get pretty full on my dinner. Other nights this week, I have had a hard time getting full.

By the way, I'm not doing this to lose weight. This is in order to detox. I read about the Daniel Fast on Dr Josh Axe's website. I am loosely following that in addition to drinking Essiac Tea twice a day. I am also drinking water ALL DAY LONG! Seriously, one glass after another. I go through a full glass of water about twice an hour. This is crucial while drinking Essiac Tea in order to not have an excrutiating headache! I have not measured to see how much I'm taking in. I just know when detoxing, lots of water is a must.

Back to Homeschool

 

It's a fine line between family time and learning time. It seems the children are always learning, whether we're sitting around the table with paper and pens, relaxing by a friend's pond, hiking down trails, making healing salves, mixing up household cleaners, cooking dinner, weighing foods at the grocery store & comparing prices, or canoeing a river. But for record keeping sake, we have officially started Back to School.

 

 

 

Matthew, being 4 years old, has started a light routine of "preschool" work. I am trying to teach him letters and numbers. He doesn't naturally care about learning these things, so I sort of have to trick him into learning. He does, however, like playing with play-do, painting, making books, drawing with dry-erase markers, building cities with blocks and making maps of those cities along with stories about the people who live in them, exploring nature, and snuggling with me while looking at books. I have started using www.letteroftheweek.com to teach him a different letter each week. I am also utilizing the fun printables made by Erica at www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com to go along with our letter of the week.  

 

Our Family Backpacking Trip

Loading our backs (and shoulders and arms and hands) with our packs

Daddy got stuck with the greatest load . . . a tent, a tarp, a backpack, and 2 coolers

Watch out for copperhead snakes. With no cell phone reception, an unexpected run-in might ruin your camping trip.

~It's a long way down~

~All set up, and potty house found~

What are these extra pieces for?? Maybe they explain why the tent is lopsided?

Rest for a moment and then hang the food.

~We wouldn't want the bears to eat our marshmallows!~

Uh-Oh, there's a hungry bear trying to get the food already! :)

Our "moderately strenuous" hike.

Note, when the brochure says "moderately strenuous", bump it up a notch when bringing children.

Hiking over slippery boulders with a 4 & 6 year old is more than moderately strenuous.

 ~ One refreshing moment of the hike~

~Feeling water falling off the rocks~

  

Awesome centipede along the trail. There were many.

~We finally get rewarded for our treacherous hike with a waterfall~

Oh the big outdoors

Makes you feel kind of small

We sit in awe of the beauty of nature.

Journaling to come. I hope you enjoyed our pictures.