Chrysta- I used to make oatmeal with raisins- put raisins (or whatever dried fruit I have on hand, cut into raisin-sized pieces) into the water when  I heat it up, so they get all plump and sweeten the water before I add the oats. If you have more energy, you can soak dried fruit, then puree it, and THEN cook the oats in that, to  get the flavor mixed in better. Simpler but more expensive is to add a jar of baby food fruit to your oatmeal after cooking.

Drea very very excited for you! Day 6 is awesome. I'm on day three now. I feel great... except for feeling the full moon last night. It's tonight but I start feeling it a day before most times it comes around. With dogs and diarrhea I recommend feeding them nothing but rice. It is easy for their stomaches to handle. Brown rice works the best.

Ruthie I wish I could get over my issues with raisins or any dried fruit for that matter. They just look like they are depressed and really sad when they've been dried. And dried raisins especially freak me out. The dancing raisins from that commercial, just the thought of them still freaks me out. lol

Lol Chrysta! How about slices of fresh fruit cooked into your oatmeal then? Or use juice for part of the cooking water.

Good job on 6 days of eating clean Drea!

Yep, that's what I'm doing this morning! Fresh fruit! Yum!

Drea, you are doing so well with your diet but you need your SLEEP!!!!
I do understand about your dog, though. My "girls" are like having toddlers ...you have to put them first!
Christa, when did you become a teacher? I remember you mentioned you had a great turkey recipe...?????
Possum, have you tried the "sip right for your type" tea? I love the type A tea so I bought some type O tea for my friend who "swells" alot...she said it really helped her and she loves the taste!

There u are Cajun! lol
I became a teacher when I Swami'd myself January 1st. YAY me!

After eating a very delicious and healthy dinner: sauteed collards, mustard and turnip greens, spinach, fresh ginger root, fresh garlic, in walnut oil with tofu, I finished up the last of the raw cauliflower and dipping sauce from last night. Then I ate two or three spoonfuls of almond butter and a whole package of rice cakes. Turns out, I can't eat just one. I won't be buying those again anytime soon.

I'm drinking some Bengal Spice tea so I can unwind from my day before retiring. I love to sit and knit and listen to an audio book at the end of the day.

Still no sugar or wheat, but there is room for improvement in my food choices. Tomorrow is a day off for kennel errands and grocery shopping. I'll also be picking up my weekly portion from the local organic greenhouse (kale and chard).

End of day 7. Wuu-huu! I'm very proud of myself today. I went into town at 8am and didn't come back until 6p. Even so, I didn't stray. I had my morning cup of coffee with soy milk, almonds that I keep in the car (but only a handful), plain kefir (I love the unsweetened variety - I've never had it before), a Lara Bar (peanuts, dates, salt), some water, and when I got home, a lacinato kale salad with crimini mushrooms, black beans, celery, red onion, fresh pressed garlic, walnut oil, ume vinegar, and feta cheese. Everything was either a bennie or a diamond with the one exception of the ume vinegar, which is a neutral.

Not bad!

Quoted from Drea

I had my morning cup of coffee with soy milk, almonds that I keep in the car (but only a handful), plain kefir (I love the unsweetened variety - I've never had it before), a Lara Bar (peanuts, dates, salt), some water, and when I got home, a lacinato kale salad with crimini mushrooms, black beans, celery, red onion, fresh pressed garlic, walnut oil, ume vinegar, and feta cheese. Everything was either a bennie or a diamond with the one exception of the ume vinegar, which is a neutral.

Not bad!

Great job!  I see you get black beans...  They have always been avoid for me, but my DD really likes them...  Her favorite recipe is to warm up about 15 ounces of beans, mix in some crumbled roast turkey, and some grated Co-Jack cheese.  Spread this on a large plate, spread with plain yogurt, more grated cheese and chopped avocado.  

you daughter has good taste....

Good job Drea! Eating well on "busy days" is always the biggest challenge.

I'm so jealous that you get Lara bars. Dates are a black dot for me, so a Lara bar would just play games with my blood sugar. There's not a single kind of ready made "bar" that's safe for me.

I am lucky that I get dates, and they are a bennie, too. Before I got Swami-d, they were a black dot.

Of course after I posted my hip hip hooray, I opened a bottle of wine (my bad), then got an intense craving for bread. I ate 4 slices of plain, untoasted 100% sourdough rye. It could have been worse...I wanted to smear Best Foods on them, but I didn't.

This morning it was coffee with soy milk (I'm taking a break from the soy lecithin), and a Apple Pie Lara Bar (dates, almonds, unsweetened apples, walnuts, raisins, cinnamon). The cinnamon is the only neutral, the rest bennies or diamonds.

Lunch: a kale salad. I can't believe how much I'm enjoying eating raw kale this way.

she s a total Mexican curious, in taste!!!

Well, I ate my kale salad at 4:30pm, which is closer to dinner (no lunch). Then I ate two pieces (the last two pieces of the package) of plain, untoasted rye bread, a couple of small spoonfuls of almond butter, and a bowl of fresh (cooked) brussels sprouts with ghee and mustard. Now my tummy hurts a bit and my lungs are tight. I'm thinking that's because of the mustard.

crunchy kale chips
http://www.naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=6EB1B8415D8C762AA5D976B617E343EB

or the gluten in the rye? Seriously consider this, it changed my life going gluten-free...as in: I don't have asthma anymore?

I'm still also gluten and white sugar and honey free. I feel good... but tired. Today was a long day at the natural health store. Especially with my 7 month old that has three teeth coming in. Ouch! Time for bed.

I'm not gluten sensitive. I still think it's the mustard. That particular variety is made with vinegar, and lately, vinegar has been hard on my system (technically, it's an avoid, but used to not bother me so much).

Day nine and still wheat-free/sugar-free (and at the moment, this includes any form of processed sweeteners, agave included; I'll add that back in after a time, just want to clear my system first). I have to remind myself that I'm not trying to go grain-free.

I noticed I was eating over my weekly egg allotment, so I picked up a couple of individual packets of sprouted brown rice protein powder (nothing else added) to try with my oatmeal for morning protein.

My breakfast of oat bran mixed with cinnamon, pecan pieces, golden raisins, and rice protein powder turned out to be quite tasty. Not sweet, but the raisins add a nice sweetness in the bites that have them. I'm wondering, though, if the rice protein powder should be counted towards my daily grain allotment? If so, that's all the grain I can have for the rest of the day (won't be hard, just curious).

Quoted from Lola

crunchy kale chips
http://www.naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=6EB1B8415D8C762AA5D976B617E343EB

What an adorable child in that video!    My kale chips came out so bitter than I couldn't eat them, but I made mine with olive oil and sea salt only, and used a higher oven temp.  Perhaps at a lower temperature and with this tahini sauce they don't taste as bitter.

Quoted from jayneeo

you daughter has good taste....

Thanks...  
She has always been very discriminating in her food choices and we learned to use that to help guide us away from her avoids...

Quoted from Drea

My breakfast of oat bran mixed with cinnamon, pecan pieces, golden raisins, and rice protein powder turned out to be quite tasty. Not sweet, but the raisins add a nice sweetness in the bites that have them. I'm wondering, though, if the rice protein powder should be counted towards my daily grain allotment? If so, that's all the grain I can have for the rest of the day (won't be hard, just curious).

I would count the rice protein as a vegetable protein rather than a carbohydrate since most of the carb content would have been removed to increase the protein percentage...

Thanks Joe.

Lunch was another salad with kale and some braising mix I got from the local organic greenhouse, crimini mushrooms, green onion, black beans, celery, feta, walnut oil, ume vinegar, and fresh pressed garlic.

Dinner is sauteed broccoli florets with fresh ginger root and wf tamari.

I'm definitely getting my veggies!!

I just made the discovery that ascorbic acid is also often made from corn. *shakes head*. How exactly is corn a good source of Vitamin C?

I'm eating a jar of Santa Cruz Organic apple sauce, ingredients: organic apples, ascorbic acid (Vitamin C). I wonder if this means the ascorbic acid (in this case) is made from Vitamin C or what? I could email the company to ask (and may).

it is corn derived, no need to ask, they won t have a clue.....check the list