Going Raw

I've been really looking into the raw food diet lately. It would definitely help my acid problem, and it's extremely healthy for you. I might not go 100% raw, right now I'm aiming for 50% of the foods I eat to be raw. Raw means that the food was never heated past 110 degrees (or up to 118 max). So obviously you can't eat meat or cooked grains or anything. It's a diet of mostly fruits, vegetables, nuts, oils, and sprouted grains/seeds. The point is that everything you're eating is still full of enzymes. Anything heated past 125 has no more enzymes, and your body needs tons of that. Also, protein breaks down, vitamins and nutrients break down a lot too past that temperature. So you're only eating LIVING foods, not dead, worthless things. That's what your body needs to survive, right?

Most people think that the raw diet would be just a bunch of salads and chewing on carrots all day. But there are tons of fun recipes and things that mimic cooked food, for example, apple pie and lasagna recipes. I'm excited to try some, and I ordered two un-cook books (hah!) to try out. Today I'm drinking my first green smoothie, made from banana, strawberry and spinach. It surprisingly tastes nothing of spinach and all of banana and strawberry. It's very good. I'll let you all know how my new diet is progressing and if I decide to go more raw sometime in the future.

Movies and being married

I like to watch a nice girlie movie every once-in-a-while. My husband, on the other hand, could probably live without that little pleasure, he gets incredibly bored and usually falls asleep. So last night we were going to rent a movie. We all piled into the car (Jeffrey included, he loves car trips especially when he can stick his head out the window) and headed down to Blockbuster. I elected to wait in the car while Andy went in to get Ocean's 13 (we saw 11 and 12, and I thought he might like to watch 13). He was in there for a while and finally came out not carrying Ocean's 13, but Becoming Jane! He knows I absolutely love Jane Austen and as a very loving gesture he chose the movie about her life for me instead of a more fun movie for him. We went home, got under the covers and started our movie. About 1/3 of the way through it Andy fell asleep, but I enjoyed it. Husbands are the best.

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

Personality Profile

I've always liked taking personality tests. So I took 2 different ones. The Jung Typology test said that I am ESTJ (The Guardian). The test is at www.personalitypage.com, and is very accurate, I think. I was very pleased to find out that Andy is INTP (The Thinker), which is a near perfect match for my personality. I also took an Enneagram test, which says I'm the Skeptic (Type 6) by a lot. It's at www.9types.com and is also very accurate (the two go together pretty well).

I've always liked my personality in most cases, but sometimes I sure wish I was more outgoing and conversed more easily with strangers and acquaintances. I have the hardest time calling people! If only I wasn't so scared of what they would think of me or that I might mess up (or something, I don't know why I'm shy), then I would be much more confident and able to start and hang on to more relationships. I love having friends, but it's really hard for me to make friends. It's a vicious cycle.

Life

Life's been a little difficult lately. It's kind of lonely here in Yreka, there's not much to do, not many people our age to hang out with. Yesterday I was a little depressed, but my very sweet husband has been showing me how much he loves me lately, and it has helped a lot. Last night he gave me a nice long back massage, which helped my aching shoulders. How sweet is he!

Cable TV

We just found out that the cable company has been giving us free cable for almost a year! Apparently they (and we) knew nothing about it until a few days ago when we got a handwritten note on our front door telling us that they did an audit on their system and discovered that we had been getting free cable. We had until yesterday to tell them if we wanted to continue it (and pay for it). Of course we don't really want cable because it takes away all of our time (we can be very addicted to things). So we had cable tv for 3 sweet days during which I lounged around watching Martha Stewart and Take Home Chef (along with several other TLC shows) for hours. As you all know, everything eventually has to come to an end, so when we turned the tv on today, all we got was nice fuzzy static. Now I have time to do things like blog and make healthy dinner instead of being glued to the television. I like this better.

All about my acidosis

I just found out that I probably have a condition called Acidosis. It means that my body is too acidic, which can lead to tons of problems including cancer and heart disease. The symptoms are a lump in my throat (I've had one for almost 2 years and have had numerous medical exams resulting in nothing), and breathlessness. My Grandma found a huge article on it, and I'm pretty sure I have it.

So now that I know I have this condition, I have to try to fix it. It's all in DIET. I've never thought that I would go on a diet, but now it seems that I have to. The diet consists of tons of vegetables, fruits, and other alkaline producing foods. I have to eat about 70% of those at each meal and 30% of acid producing foods (all kinds of meat, grains except quinoa and millet, and pretty much any junk food, sugar, pasta, etc.). I thought it would be very easy for me, but it has turned out to be difficult on the days that I am busy. I've tried millet, and it's delicious (just like rice). I'm trying quinoa cereal tomorrow morning instead of my usual oat meal (it turns out blueberries and walnuts produce acid too. Sad!). I read that a fast way to start becoming more alkaline is to juice vegetables a few times a day and drink that. I looked at juicers and it was $50 for a decent one! So now I'm saving up for one so I can get healthy.

We went out for dinner last night with my parents, and I failed at my diet miserably. I had rice, chicken, and sweet and sour sauce (pretty much straight sugar). And then I ate the leftovers today for lunch. It's hard to stick to a diet. It's pizza night at church tonight before Jr. High youth group, and I'm not going to have any! I'm going to saute zucchini before I go and eat that with a salad.

I'll keep you posted on my success/failure of my diet and my condition in the future. It might take a while to fix, but hopefully now that I'm aware of it, I'll be on the right track.

Cookies...

I made the best chocolate chip cookies the other day. They were delicious AND beautiful, so I took a picture of them. I've tried other recipes and gotten super flat, bland tasting cookies. But these were actually good! So here's my pride and joy.

My Grandma...

We just found out a few days ago that my Grandma's kidney cancer has spread to her bones before they got a chance to take it out. She has survived 7 different cancers already, and now this. They don't want to take out her kidney now because while her body's trying to heal, the bone cancer would go un-checked. So the options are to 1. cut off the blood flow to the kidney and let it die, then probably do dialysis (she wasn't a good candidate for dialysis before because she's so small), or 2. do nothing. She can't have chemo either, because you need good functioning kidneys to get rid of all the chemo toxins.

My Grandma is an amazing person, loves Jesus, loves her family, and is full of servanthood and humility. A true example of being Christ to those around you. We just lost my Grandpa last June, and I know that she misses him a lot. The family's trying to make decisions together (with a lot of conference calls, as they live in Nebraska, Portland, Medford, and two of their children here). This is tough.

I was reading in James 1 yesterday, and lately I've been praying for God to do whatever He wills with Grandma, whether it be healing, or taking away her pain, or whatever (kind of wishy-washy). But James says, "If you don't know what you're doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You'll get his help, and won't be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believing, without a second thought. People who "worry their prayers" are like wind-whipped waves. Don't think you're going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open." (Message) That has convicted me to pray for Grandma's healing. God will answer how He wants to, but that's how I'm going to pray. Boldly.