HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!

Here we are, into another Halloween....ALREADY! As I get older the years get shorter.
The kids are knocking down our doors for money, NO! Sweets wont do, they want money at Halloween and Christmas times which they then go and spend on sweets.....where is the logic in that?! Ah well!

I have kept up with my moving and housework and my beauty but again my raw hasn't been consistent although it hasn't been non existent either which is always a good thing!
I have and still got a nasty headache, I have had it for about 3 or 4 days now, maybe it is the change in the weather and pressure, but it isn't helping me much!

I have cleaned and steaped my Eva Spring Water filter parts in a water and lemon juice solution ready for a brand new month tomorrow.

Oh! Our clocks went back an hour on Sunday 12.00am so our British "summer" time has officially ended.

I am trying to remember what I have done over these last few days, but you know what? I just cannot remember....ummmm

I will say, "nighty night" for today and I will be back tomorrow.

I haven't done so good today, lazy, yet not. I say lazy because I have consumed mostly cooked and all of which I don't particularly enjoy, so, why? Lazy because I couldn't be bothered to prepare raw, so I just snacked on Rich Tea biscuits and also a few chips that I cooked for the families meal, I HAVE had fruit and grawnola today, so not ALL bad. Not so lazy today because I vacuumed and cleaned all my floors, I swear if floors could breath then they would have been gasping for air...not like me to not keep on top of them....no pun intended. My floors are usually the first thing I do every morning even if nothing else gets done. I threw all my rugs and doors mats into the washing machine, I could because they are machine washable which I LOVE! I vacuumed my bedrooms, landing and stairs also...so, not so lazy today! AHEM! Except for the fact that I had an afternoon nap for 3 hours, yep! I did say 3 hours!

After I showered this morning and whilst getting dressed I noticed the top of my left arm, just near the underarm but at the front, it was looking a bit patchy and swollen, "what is that? I must be allergic to something or something more sinister is happening." Thinking something more sinister, how we do, but then on closer inspection...."Oh my goodness, never in this world!" Stretch marks, two of and very swollen and red looking and not nice to see AT ALL! And itchy, they have been itchy. I have been managing not to scratch them. I have noticed over the last year or two, especially over this last year that my body has changed, the skin has changed i.e. loosness, cellulity...is there such a word? Cellulity? I am looking more podgy in my belly, back and arms. My legs have changed shape, and no! It isn't just because of weight because I have been losing albeit a little bit, but even when hovering around the same weight, my body, skin etc has definitely changed. I think I might be peri-menopausal because other things have been happening a little more which could explain as to why my skin has changed. 
I have GOT to move and exercise, so to get back into things I will keep on top of my floors daily.....moving those arms! I am going to do the school walks daily again and also do my exercise DVD's. I have so many new exercise DVD's, some of which are still in their cellophanes. I haven't even done my Zumba which I got for Christmas last year. I have been lazy for too long. I have had rough patches this year, like we all have sometimes and it is time to stop wallowing in my problems and, "put myself first and take more care of myself, my health!!" Turn my negative thoughts into positives!!...BE ME!!...JUST, BE ME!! Get the old me back again, a RE-NEWED ME!! That sounds contradictory, the old me yet a re-newed me, by that I mean, the old me by getting my routines back again but a re-newed me because everything will be better with more determination, more gusto, happiness, healthiness, calmness, more energetic, more pride, more awake, being positive, less NO negatives...MORE ALIVE!! I just WANT TO BE ME!!

I feel like blogging more lately which I am enjoying doing!
When I feel that I am lacking that raw motivation I always watch You Tubes and Michelle K is one of my favourites! So I was very pleased to see another raw un-cooking upload today.
Here is a link to her You Tube, 'It's A High Raw Life' She is so inspiring!



I am thinking of making some kale chips tomorrow - Oh! AND some RAW caramel Popcorn, ANNND I am thinking of drinking a lot more juices throughout my days, not doing a juice feast, just getting those good ole liquids into my body. Juices are always a good thing and I could make them in the morning and have them throughout my day when I feel, "laziness" coming on.

Well, I think that is all for now and ramblings done for today so I will say, "nighty night" and I will be back tomorrow - Oh! I still need to do my October Buy which I will do tomorrow also, it's another good one, but then it would be or I wouldn't have bought it....like, durrr.

Time: 8.34am.
Weighed in this morning as Thursday's are my weigh in days and I have had another small loss of .7 I have updated this on my 'Weigh In' Page.

I have eaten a pear so far this morning. I didn't get my granola made last night because I need to soak lots of things so I am going to soak them today and get the granola into the dehydrator tonight.

I was awake just before 5.00am this morning to clear up cat sick. Peaches is sick sometimes, she brings up fur balls and of course it has to be cleaned up straight away, so, I am feeling tired again this morning.....what's new there?!

Peaches. The pic is a tad blurry but she is so cute!!!

UPDATE
I have just finished making the granola and it is now in the dehydrator for tomorrow's breakfast, of course it wont all be eaten tomorrow, there is 3 sheets of it so it will last for some time and it stores well in an airtight container.

It is now 10.05pm and I am normally in bed before now so I will say, "night night"

Back tomorrow.

Bugs In Blood

Bugs In Blood...although not very bloody colour, yummy though! I simply vitamixed some strawberries with 2 dates, topped it with carbinated water, poured it into a glass and dropped a couple of washed blueberries into the glass to simulate the bugs. My 2 boys loved it! Which is always a good thing when it comes to getting fruits and veg into them.

I haven't eaten much again today, but I think it is because I fell asleep this morning for about 3 hours, that was after I had already got out of bed, showered, dressed etc. I lay on the settee and that was that. I have done this for about 3 mornings in a row now. Totm arrived and went last week and I always feel very tired before, during and a day or two after totm but I thought I might have started to get some energy back by now, I did feel more energised after my morning nap. After my morning sleep I cleaned two bedroom blinds and windows inside and out, and by the time I had done that it was time to prepare the evening meal, so sleeping and being busy is probably why I hadn't eaten AND because I simply have not felt hungry these last few days. I'm sure my appetite will come back with a vengeance!

I am going to have a quick look at a granola recipe and if I have time then I am going to quickly whip up a batch and get it into the dehydrator for breakfast tomorrow.

Back tomorrow.

Green jewels...I don't think so!
I bought a jar of olives some years ago out of curiosity to taste them (the jar below is not the jar from years ago I hasten to add) because so many people seem to enjoy eating them, but I have to say, I didn't like them at all! But as the years have gone on and I have been eating lots of raw over the years, actually, I think since 2007 on and off I thought that I would buy another jar of olives because I am finding that people use them a lot in raw foods.
I chose a jar of the green olives for only 46p no way was I going to pay £1.46p for a jar of olives when I still may not like them.

I opened the jar feeling convinced that I would enjoy them. I grabbed a cocktail stick and pierced the green jewel, telling myself, "yes, this looks yummy," and thinking of all the raw recipe's I could use these in. I popped it into my mouth....BLEURGH! I still DO NOT LIKE THEM AT ALL! I wont be buying them again.

Over the last two days I have not eaten much, I haven't felt like eating, I haven't been feeling hungry. Yesterday I had a banana and a salad. Today I have eaten a satsuma, a small bar of raw chocolate and I have to confess to eating two sausages that I had left over after cooking the families evening meal. I am feeling that I am/have going/gone off any meat, it tastes like raw flesh, even when cooked...obviously, that pinkness it has is so unappealing to me now and doesn't taste like it used to. I am thinking of what I am eating; animals that were once living. They didn't die of an illness or old age like humans, they were killed to feed humans. No! I don't feel that even a small bit of none raw is for me any more!!! I am NOT enjoying any of it any more, my taste buds must be changing. Since eating the sausages and the olive I have been feeling decidedly sickly in my tummy. A nights sleep should hopefully put that to rights ready for a raw day tomorrow. I am thinking of making a raw strawberry soda tomorrow...YUM!

Oh! I was forced to colour my hair last Sunday, I was sporting a halo of white/grey...I call it, my natural blonde....teehee but I didn't like it, it looks better now! I hate having to colour my hair, such a tedious job to have to do.

I am still cleaning my cupboards and throwing things away, I am having to be strict with myself because there are some things that I just know I wont ever use, so despite them being in good condition I am chucking them. I am finding it hard to throw away clothes in smaller sizes that I once used to fit into, maybe I will keep some of them as gauges of my weightloss to come.

Well, that is me for now. I will be back tomorrow.

I wanted to make some coconut yogurt but I didn't have any young coconuts in the house. Lately the young coconuts haven't had any meat in them just water so I haven't been buying them, but because I wanted to make a coconut yogurt I thought I would have another go (sure I've tried this before) making some yogurt using the brown coconuts. Brown coconuts are so cheap to buy at only 49p each but unfortunately they are so much harder to work with. I cracked, drained and de-meated the coconut and cleaned it up. I wanted to grate the meat first to make it easier for the vitamix to cream it but it was going to make such a mess using the box grater and I could not be bothered to get the cuisinart out, so I just whacked the meat straight into the vitamix along with the water, but as I thought, it didn't cream it down and the longer I was blending the warmer it was getting so I had to keep stopping. I blended it for as long as I dare but it still had a slight graininess to it. I poured it into a glass jar, added a probiotic and left it to ferment over night in a warm place. This morning I checked it but unfortunately it hadn't expanded or got little bubbles in it, so I am assuming it hadn't worked; I'm still eating it anyway.

Here is a pic inside the jar that I have just taken, I think it does look mildly bubbly, maybe it IS fermenting...I don't know, actually, it might just be looking grainy.
I was thinking that maybe I should have added a small amount of sweetener when I added the probiotic because the brown coconuts are less sweet than the young coconuts, maybe that is what it needed, but what what sweetener to use?....Errrm - coconut nectar? Zylitol? I'm sure that the probiotics feed on the sugars that are present in the foods which helps with the fermentation...if I'm wrong them someone please correct me! Next time I make this I am going to grate the meat before blending it so as to help it to cream better.

I had some of this coconut yogurt, dates, a few nuts and a diced pear for my breakfast this morning and I have to say, it was very yummy!
After breakfast I popped to Asda for a pumpkin, I have a few recipe's I want to try.

I haven't had any lunch yet, I have a bit of a headache and I am going to sit and close my eyes for a while to see if it lifts.

Oh! We got up to frost on the roof of my car this morning.....brrrr

Bitt, I am happy to post pics/fave meals etc here on this page aswell as in the other pages so it is quicker.

A tad late in the day for an Autumn challenge but hey! Why not eh?
Okay today is day 1 and the last day is Christmas Eve...not planned but a good day! I choose 66 days because that is how long it takes to create a new habit; I always thought it was 30 days but nope, not according to psychologists at the University College, London.

You may have noticed that I have added a few new pages to the right of this blog, this is where I am going to post pics and recipes of my favourite meals for that particular page.....more accountability.

I have posted todays breakfast on my 'Breakfast' Page.

I have been SOO busy for the last couple of weeks. I have been clearing the little bedroom/spare bedroom of all it's rubbish and clutter and WOW! There was a LOT of things in that room, everything would get thrown into that room and although not a big room it certainly could hold a lot of things. We have done 2 trips to the amenities and two big lots have gone into a bin wagon. I threw away an old but barely used and still in excellent condition manual treadmill, I have my electric treadmill and the manual treadmill was simply taking up extra room. The things that I have kept have gone up into the loft.
Doing all that work has certainly exercised my body, so much so that I have lost on the scales for 3 weeks in a row.
I still want to go through more things in my bedroom also i.e. my wardrobes etc I LOVE throwing away rubbish, it is very theraputic!
The reason I have been sorting out the spare bedroom is because James has been asking for his own bedroom. In the new year we will be skimming and re-flooring that room but in the meantime James has his own bedroom now, he is one happy chappy!!

I walked into town, around town and back yesterday and I can feel it today in my legs despite doing all that lifting and sorting over these last couple of weeks. We done our big grocery shop yesterday too, so that was also more walking.
I bought some new Green Bags yesterday for my fresh produce, hopefully things might last a tad longer, the Green Bags also help to keep the nutrients etc in the food.
I have started my Christmas shopping for James and my OH, so that is their main pressies in, still need to get lots more and to start Adam's, Michael's and our grandchildren's pressies. Christmas seems to have come earlier this year, the shops have loads of Christmas decorations and toys etc in and their Christmas catalogues are all out.

Here are a few pics from the last few weeks.

Before and after of creamed Cacao Butter.

I had never creamed Cacao Butter in my stone grinder, I wasn't sure if it would even grind down because it is rather hard, but after grating it with ease on my microplane box grater I sprinkled the grated cacao shavings into my stone grinder and it creamed it beautifully. When I added the other ingredients that were needed to make raw chocolate it thinned out even more.

I made mint shells and nut butter cups...BEAUTIFUL!

A raw pizza

I should have added more colour i.e. red pepper, spinach leaves. This was very YUMCIOUS! But I sprinkled on too much onion as the onion was quite strong.

Well that is all for now. I will get  

BACK TOMORROW!!

Yes, October 1st, I love a new month. The birds are singing and we appear to be having an Indian Summer....all good!
I have been SOOO good with my raw food lately and it is becoming easier and more natural which I am pleasd about because it is a lifestyle change, not something that has to be forced.

We have just done a grocery shop at Asda for good healthy things which needs to be put away. 
I currently have grains sprouting for a pizza base that I am going to be making and I am feeling SO positive! Oh! And I did have a loss on the scales on Thursday of 1.9lb.

BACK LATERL TODAY