So today I’m wrapping up day two in the raw… here’s what I devoured:

Breakfast: Chocolate Banana smoothie

Lunch: Romaine salad with seeds, tomatoes, green onion and my favorite salad dressing: 1 lemon, 1 tablespoon of agave nectar, two gloves of garlic in 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil…

**A small confession about today… after my wonderful salad with favorite GARLIC-Y dressing I had to have a piece of gum (Thanks, Lindsey).  I think that everyone in the nurse practice lab (which was like 30 people today) appreciated this minor setaback!!!**

I snacked on raw seeds and nuts in between meals and made up a beautiful Pesto with Zuccini shavings as pasta.  It was really Pretty:

And it was terrible! The only satisfying thing about this meal was that it was so bland and tasteless that the pineapple that I ate for dessert was OUT OF THIS WORLD!  But, I was full, and healthy and got some more veggies in.  For those of you that might know a good raw pesto recipe, please please please tell me! I’ve still got tons of basil and lots of hope!

Questions:

Morning feelings: This morning I woke up with a huge headache.  I think that it can be because of stress, being tired, my cutting back of caffeine or weather… but I dout it’s from food.  My stomach felt totally better.

Post-dinner feelings: Do you know how when you get some awesome warm home cooking in your belly and you just want to flop down on the couch and pass out afterwards… when you eat fresh food you don’t feel that way.  Instead, I had a super high after eating fresh food. I need energy and that is what I’m getting!

Hey folks!

So, if I can manage with all that I have to do, I hope to post each day a little entry about my raw diet.  I want to tell you the rules that I am following so that if you see me out in public sipping a coffee you don’t judge me:

I will follow a raw diet but will allow myself coffee and tea.  I feel this to be fair since this coming Monday I have two exams and a research paper due.  The world is not going to stop just because I want to spend extra time on my diet… so I will press on and allow myself the necessary items to succeed.

Breakfast: Small cup of coffee and Chocolate Banana Shake from the rawtarian: Banana, raw cacao powder, agave nectar, water! Blend then drink.  My kids also loved it!

Picture and recipe from therawtarian.com

Lunch: Guacamole with carrot sticks and celery and another chocolate shake… only this time with cinnamon!  Now I realize that a raw diet shouldn’t be raw and lack green veggies… and that is why dinner is full of fresh veggies! Besides, real cacao has a healthy ammount of magnesium.  So it is more healthy than a ‘treat’, though it tastes yummy!

Snack: A few times a day, I have to head to the kitchen to get food/snacks/water for kids and I grabbed a few bites of raw cashews to munch on.  They. Are. So. Completely. Delicious… seriously.  If you’ve never had them, go to the bulk section of your natural whole food store and get you some.  They’re the best!

Dinner:

Recipe from therawtarian.com

Also, I’ll try address some questions each day:

Morning feeling: Upon rising, I felt so completely and utterly bloated from last nights ‘Last Supper’ at Nick Ryans! My stomach was so hateful about this wonderful food… my husband felt amazing this morning and had no issues.  Nick Ryans has become our new favorite local restaurant and this morning’s tummy trouble was a sign that something has to change because my body is angry with me… and I was excited to start my new raw diet.

Cravings: I had a few weak moments today when I wanted to tear open a bag of chips and devour it… but I refrained and this feeling went away in 5 minutes.  The key was to grab a fruit full of fiber and juice and then I was no longer wanting to stuff my face!

Was I full?  I ate ALL day long, as much raw food as I wanted.  If I wanted two bananas, I ate them… and didn’t feel guilty about it.  There is freedom in knowing that everything that you are eating is necessary for your body and you can eat as much as you like… so at 11pm before bed I finished the rest of the ‘chicken salad’ from the above recipe… and felt great about it!

Alrighty, here’s some of my loot for my week of raw.  In the picture you see some of my groceries.  Here’s what I bought from our Co-Op in preparation:

-Couple heads of romain lettuce for green smoothies and salads

-Olives because they’re a great filling snack

-Avacado, Red Onion and Tomatoes for my guacamole dinners

-Dates for smoothies and such

-Raw Cacao nibs so I can survive… ahhhh… raw chocolate is high in magnesium and great for you!

-Raw Cashews and sunflower seeds for some raw dinner salads and to mix into smoothies for texture

-Agave Nectar for sweetening my smoothies

-Bananas, Apples, Celery, Carrots

White Chili is on the menu by Paula Deen

I saw my first circumcision last Friday at my clinical rotation.  I then saw my second, third and fourth circumcisions. It was quite the day.

I’m doing my rotations in newborn and labor and delivery in nursing school and it is really challenging to me, but in a good way. I’m excited to be there and this time is further convincing me that I’m headed in the right direction with my career.

But… BUT… some things I was not prepared for, such as the circumcisions.  I had seen stuff on the internet regarding circumcisions and as a mom of two girls did more than neccessary amount of reading about circumcisions.  I have helped women make the decision whether or not to circumcise their own babies and have offered advice to women that circumcised and wanted to successfully breastfeed.

After Friday I want to put this advice out there for making your decision on circumsicion:

1. Dr. do not always give the maximum amount of pain pain relief medicine prior to procedure. It depends upon their schedule and their way of doing it.  Some comfort measures will be performed by the nurse attending the circumcision such as talking with baby, giving paci or sugar water, keeping baby warm with blanket, offering tylenol in hospital after procedure.

2. Babies that are circumcised have increased risk for breastfeeding difficulties since babies tend to go into a deep sleep after circumcision (a way to cope with the pain).

3. Babies that are circumcised must have the Vit. K shot.  It is necessary for operations that can cause baby to bleed.

4. Babies that are circumcised have increased risk for infection after procedure and require extra care for diaper changing at home.

Now, if you’re still trying to decide, I challenge you to read as much as you can.  You can always postpone circumcision and revisit it as an option when baby is bigger, breastfeeding is established and after 8th day when his blood clotting factors are ready to work on their own.  But once a circumcision is done… it is done, no going back!

Check out what Dr. Sears has to say about circumcisions as you research your options!

To preface: I did not eat all that junk food in last night’s post.  My husband found it on sale and brought it all home! It will last us a while for sure! But still a great deal!

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In college, I had what the doctors referred to as a “sensitive GI tract” or “extra digestive juice”… but no big problems BUT I spent lots of time during my freshman year in the fetal position on my bed begging for relief from my stomach pains.  It was only after I moved to Belarus for the semester that I discovered my problem was in processed food and the outrageous use of preservatives.  So, I began to get healthy and ate fresh food (for the most part) and my stomach pains vanished.

Since then I’ve been an advocate of fresh, homemade bread.  I never use boxed desserts but make them from scratch.  I used canned food only in a hurry and in that case only if two ingredients are involved: green beens + salt, black beans + salt, tomatoes + salt… you get the idea.

Even through my first semester as a FULL TIME nursing student and mom, I managed to feed my children fast food fewer times than I can count on one hand. Nutrition and health are very important to me. But… BUT, recently those stomach pains have been coming back.  And before I go thinking I’ve got some disease and get on some life-long med, I’m going to check myself.

So, here goes:

_Homemade Bread: RARELY… usually we get bread from Sunrise Bakery or Whole foods but almost 2x a month from Kroger’s bakery.

_Cola: I’ve been trying to limit myself to drinking original Coke only on clinical Fridays when good coffee is hard to find on my lunch break.  I have the tendancy of staying up WAY too late Thursday night hanging with the Mr. and Friday 5.30 alarm is always a bummer… so caffeine remains an issue for me.

_Caffeine: Still way to much… remember the 11 things I don’t need in 2011 post?  I’m still working on that one… working/ignoring. It’s time to act responsible and kick this bad habit.

_Cereal: My weakness… although I buy natural/organic cereals… it is flour and wheat and hard to digest processed grains.  It is my vice to eat this with organic whole milk at 10pm… uh oh!

_Alcohol: I LOVE craft beer.  I don’t like to drink too much of it.  Usually one bottle is all I want but it’s loaded with fiz and calories… not the best thing for your tummy.

_Bedtime and Stress: Now this is probably my greatest vice.  I am not the most responsible when it comes to managing my time (read: I should be studying during nap time… right now… instead I’m bloggin!) Nurse = stress + bad hours!  I need to kick my bum into high gear and get onto a responsible bedtime schedule, study schedule which will both reduce stress.  I don’t think that I hold stress in my cortisol or in my Blood Pressure or whatever.  I hold it in my gut… I stress out and my stomach aches, then I stress eat and then … See the cycle!?

In light of managing my life and helping my gut, I’m considering a raw diet for a short time.  I don’t know if I can do complete raw.  Simply because I am afraid to give up coffee completely and I know that I have lots of things demanding my attention right now.  But I would like to decrease my coffee intake and try more raw foods.

Anyone have any tips, suggestions, insights, experience to share?  I’ll be reading www.therawtarian.com

I’m thinking after my quizzes and exams next Tuesday… I’ll begin this little challenge.  Anyone with me!

I LOVE Kroger’s Manager Specials just about as much as I love organic junk food!!!!!! Yay!  Time for snacks!

Dear Mr. M, I’d sure love a locket for Valentine’s Day this year… or ________ (fill in the blank holiday).  Really any excuse you have to buy me something pretty, I’d love a locket.  Something sweet, feminine, sentimental without being too corny!

I’ve been browsing lockets on etsy.com lately and just came across some that are hand made to order, which makes me smile all over.  So, go check them out!!!! MStevensonsDesigns

This one might just be my favorite:

Or this one just makes me feel all fuzzy inside.  Imagine pictures of your little ones in it:

Or… LOVE this one. check out the story behind this one!

These are great for any occasion for a modern girl with a flare for tradition!  Ahhh… alright enough hinting, Buy me one, Mr. M!!!!!!

Head on over to ChildbirthConnection.org for more information on your rights as a pregnant lady.  Pretty interesting stuff, all in one nifty place!

Although Soup Sunday turned into pasta Sunday today it still lived up to one pot full of something yummy.  Truth be told, we had so many random foods in the fridge that didn’t really go together: macaroni with broth, red cabbage cole slaw, stratta, roasted chicken.  I needed to combine a few things into one big meal so that we would be sure to eat it all and not waste.  So, kinda like soup at the end of the week when all leftovers combined make something delicious.

I took some salad made of this with carrots, onion, celery and fresh turnips:

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Picture via: steamykitchen.com

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and made this:

And it was SOOOO yummy.  Lately I’ve really been wanting to Chinese and very spicy food.  I cannot eat restaurant Chinese because I don’t like the high sodium and MSG that is in most of it… but with a little ginger and imagination you can do it at home!  Plus, for you pregnant ladies out there… real ginger helps in the GI tract and might ward off morning sickness.  With the way that this dish tastes, it is worth a shot! You won’t be sorry!

Happy Sunday!