The Evolving Homemaker

Yesterday I attempted to begin a cleanse.  Yet again.  The first time I ever tried the Crazy, Sexy, Diet 21 day adventure cleanse I lasted one, count em’, one day.  The next time?  Two days.  In December, SEVEN days.

Yesterday?

I had coffee at 5:30 PM.

Here is the thing, and for once I could really feel it yesterday, I am an emotional eater.  I know we have talked about this before, but it bears repeating because it is something I deal with on a daily basis.  It is like an alcoholic who can no longer be around booze, unfortunately we have to eat to survive.  Food will always be there, always around, always the temptress dressed in sugar.

And trying to cleanse while also feeding small children who don’t have to cleanse their grilled cheese sandwiches is a disaster. You are constantly making two meals, for every meal, everyday.  And I wondered why I was still working on school with the kids at 5 PM last night.

The kicker is when things start to get hard emotionally.  As soon as I begin to get frustrated with my kids, excessive whining yesterday morning, and interrupting when I was on the phone with my Mommy, and crying, and not paying attention during school, and dilly dallying, and frustration over the state of the house…I want to grab a cookie. Go get a coffee.  Have chocolate.  Eat some crunchy chips.

Anything to mask the feeling that I am really having.

By 5 PM yesterday I was c.RAZY and as I headed to the grocery store I realized, that there is some serious work that needs to be done dealing with those feelings probably before I go crazy and drop all of my vices at once.  The reality is I don’t drink, I don’t smoke…anything, I don’t eat meat, I eat mostly organic food, I don’t drink soda ever, I love my juicer, so I am seemingly basically pretty healthy.

I just eat sugar…when I am sad, frustrated, tired, lonely, happy, overwhelmed, anxious, excited, or celebrating.  Which really, one or more of these emotions come every.single.day.

What is a girl to do?I made a list.  I am a list-er.  I like me a list.  It helps clarify what needs to be done, where I want to be going, what I need to do to get there.  For my journey to overall wellness, my list looks like this:

1. daily meditation
2. vitamins everyday
3. exercise 6x week (Sunday’s off)
4. juice daily
5. brush 2x floss 1x daily (Some days I get to dinner and wonder if I even brushed)
6. wash face in evening, sunscreen lotion in AM
7. neti pot daily (yes, it feels weird)
8. eat mostly vegan
9. lose the white sugar
10. increase flexibility
11. yoga
12. body work (massage, reiki, etc.)
13. daily spiritual reading
14. 70 oz. of water/day
15. mindful eating (tasting the food as you eat)
16. dropping acid inducing coffee (for the thousandth time or keep it and do everything else well)
17. add daily gratitude
18. live whimsy
19. time in nature as often as possible
20. weights
21. add prayer
22. walk dogs WAY more often
23. random acts of kindness
24. dress to feel good
25. read 1 of the 5 Mindfulness Trainings in the morning
26. more sex (I am not an addict, we’re just busy)
27. dry brush before showering
28. off my anxiety medication

To get to number 28 I need to incorporate most of the others.  Some things like random acts of kindness don’t seem like they help with wellness off the bat, but I think spreading joy to others makes us more joyful.

To get started I am going to type these up on a Word file and use it as a checklist at the end of everyday.  That way instead of doing everything at once, I can pick some today and slowly add the others.  By looking at the list every night, it will remind me of what I am trying to change, and allow me to be cognizant of where I still need to work on things. I wrote it in my journal, but everyone knows how once that page is turned it is all but forgotten.

Yup, I will be busy, and I will keep you updated.  But a well Mommy makes for a well family.  It is true.  You are what you eat, sleep, read, think about, and spread.  And those around you are too, because they are in your space.  For better or for worse.

Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr; there is so much I loved about this book.  Mostly I LOVED the sassy attitude of the author!  Now that is a gal I could be friends with!  And you will remember from this post here, that I couldn’t speak highly enough about the photos!  They are so meditative and beautiful!  I seriously love to just look through the pages.

Kris Carr has a type of cancer that never goes away, while at the end of the movie Crazy Sexy Cancer, her cancer wasn’t growing.  She will always have it, and mostly it is a journey of maintenance, eating healthy and taking care of herself so her cancer doesn’t begin to grow.  So far so good.

While I know a lot of this information as a health food store worker for seven years, and a nonfiction health food reader junkie, who doesn’t always do what she knows, I LOVE the accessibility of her information.

“Are you ready for the Crazy Sexy Truth about meat and dairy? Of course you are!  You are a fearless Wellness Warrior full of rebellion and fire.  So with that in mind, it’s party time and I’m gonna give you a big, phat prezzie.  In fact, this treasure is so top-shelf that it’ll keep you young, cute, and alive! Going veg is one of the best decisions you can make for your health and the planet.  Period.  Your organs, blood, bones, teeth, and private parts will thank you.  Private parts? Yes, sassy, I’m talking sex drive!  There is no better way to light the night than to eat right.”

How cool is she?  You know you want to hang out with her now don’t you?  Even if through the pages of her book.

And I also did learn a lot about PH in our bodies and how that affects health:

“Okay, so why is this so important? Your brilliant body is designed to operate within a very narrow pH range.  Optimally, you want to be a little on the alkaline side, with a blood pH of around 7.365.  Blood is the most important, and therefore most protected, pH measurement.  Even a minor fluctuation in your blood’s pH (either too alkaline or too acidic) creates distress signals.  Symptoms generally start out small and then ramp up as the imbalance continues.”

Yuck.

The book focuses on all areas of our health, from what we eat, to how we relax and rejuvenate.  I can tell you that so far, I am eating WAY less meat again, I was a veg head for 16 years, just not a very good one.  I would say I have only eaten meat once in the last week or so.  I have also begun to exfoliate my whole body.  YES.  Dry exfoliate.  Apparently your body gets rid of toxins through your skin and if your pores are all clogged up, your body no can do. And where I live, the dry climate will make sure you have lots of dead skin cells.  EWW.

I have also juiced TWICE in the last week.  TWICE!  I have a weak belly.  Last time I did a wheatgrass shot I was laying on the couch for three hours.  My stomach was so upset, so I gave up on the juice/grass thing.  But she has some great advice to start with cucumber which is relatively mild on the belly.  The first juice I had a hard time keeping down.  The second?  I thought, wow, I could actually see how you would begin to crave these little numbers.

I started easy with a whole cucumber, two carrots, and an apple.  I will work my way up to less carrots and less apple, and add more spinach, kale, parsley and the like. But a sensitive stomach Mama has got to take it slow or I will put the juicer back under the counter and give up yet again.  I don’t want to do that this time!

I have to tell you too, that the kids LOVE the juicer.  Of course they only want apple and carrot.  But who cares?  My one finicky daughter who doesn’t like to eat anything except for fruit that is good for her, drank the nutrients in a carrot!  That is progress!  They actually made up their own recipe of two carrots, two apples, and a lemon.  It was delicious!

Kris has a bunch of recipes in the back of the book, along with a 21 day cleanse as well.  There are lots of tips and motivational talk to go along with the cleanse, cause lordy knows I at least will need the motivational talks everyday.  I have not attempted the cleanse yet.  I felt as if cutting down on sugar, juicing, eating more from scratch all while also doing the No {Mostly} Spend Month was enough to take on for now.  I also get really cold easily, a lot of raw and juiced foods in the springtime when cold days still sneak up on us isn’t exactly my cup of tea.

But I plan on doing it in the summer, when the days are warm and I can pick all I want from my homestead garden and eat, eat, eat and juice, it.

So check this book out, I highly recommend it.  With all of the people in my world who have had or have cancer in the last year, I think we could all take a note or two from Kris’s book and begin to take our health more seriously and rev up the already awesome lives we have!