Today

Today I went to my volunteer job, went for a walk to the beach and back and ate a healthy raw food vegan diet. I visited with a friend for lunch (of all raw food) and she liked it, which was nice, too. Watched some inspiring videos online, too. So all and all today was a good day. :-)

Example of today's food and other examples of things I make on the Raw Food Diet

Here is an example of my raw food diet for today and other things I make, too.

Morning: Smoothie of: Frozen banana slices, Orange cut up, Fuji apple grated, some greens of romaine lettuce, (but you could use whatever greens you like, sometimes I used baby spinach and baby kale mix.) I add about a 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water to this. This one turned out tasting really nice. I make lots of different combinations.

(Sometimes I add sprouted lentils to my smoothies for protein, too. You can make almond milk by soaking about a cup of raw almonds overnight. In the morning, rinse and drain them. Then add a cup of almonds to the blender and about 4 cups of water. You will have your own almond milk that can be added to a smoothie instead of water as it will give you extra protein. There will be little ground up nuts in your smoothie if you don't mind it, otherwise you can always drain your almond milk with a net bag, but I don't do that and just deal with the gritty stuff as I do know it is good for me. The almond milk keeps a couple days okay in the fridge, just stir it good before having it or adding it to a smoothie. You can put some carob powder in the almond milk with a little agave nectar for a treat, too.)

Lunch: Zucchini, Tomato Salad with sunflower seeds.

(I peeled a whole Zucchini to make it like these thin like noodle strips and then cut up some tomatoes. I put some olive oil with some sea salt on it. Then I sprinkled some Nutritional Yeast over it. It was nice tasting. (I also make spiralized zucchini noodles with a special "Spiralizer" machine I have and serve that with some raw marina of sundried tomatoes blended with roma tomatoes in a food processor with some basil and italian spices and a little olive oil.)

Dinner: Big salad - I usually have a big salad for dinner with greens, tomatoes, grated carrot, sunflower seeds and whatever other veggies I want in it. I have a big salad bowl for this.

Snacks if hungry in between: I will usually have a banana or a fuji apple. Sometimes I just have some sunflower seeds. Sometimes I make some homemade freezer candy of ground up raw almonds (soaked overnight and rinsed and drained) with coconut oil, agave and cacoa raw powder. I just mix that up in the food processor and then drop them on a sheet in the freezer. They are a nice treat to have.

Another snack: Freeze banana slices for smoothies and vegan  ice cream. You then put some slices in for your smoothies or some in a food processor and that blends the bananas into a banana ice cream that you can flavor with cacoa powder or carob powder with a little agave. Or you can add fruit like blueberries or raspberries, etc. to the frozen banana slices.

Other things I have had since I started: I grate a fuji apple and a carrot together. It tastes really good just like that, but you could add some raisins to it if you want. I buy dates sometimes for something sweet. I make coleslaws that don't use vegan mayo. I grate some cabbage, peel and grate a beet and then add a little tahini and some oil and some apple cider vinegar with a little agave. It tastes a little strange at first, but I wound up really liking that.

Sometimes I grind up almonds and just toss the ground almonds over some grated zucchini with some olive oil.

I make kale salad by chopping kale very small (you take a couple de-stemmed kale leaves and then roll them up and chop them - it shows online how to make kale salads) and then sprinkle sea salt over it and then massage some olive oil in it. Then I put a little lemon over it too. If I don't add lemon, I will sprinkle some nutritional yeast over it and it is very good.

Hope some of these ideas helped. I don't have a totally hard diet. I could make tons of gourmet foods, but I kind of keep it simple. The smoothie at breakfast, maybe a zucchini salad at lunch and a big salad at dinner. The bananas in between help to not be hungry, too. I keep lots of bananas on hand and in the freezer. The bananas that are going darker and are on sale at the supermarkets are great to slice up and freeze and use in smoothies.

I use avocados on salads or sometimes just have one with some lemon, too.

So far so good on this way of eating since Dec. 3rd. The happy part is I went from 172 to 160.4 pounds since Dec. 3rd. The other happy part is I have way better concentration and can focus lots more for reading and learning new things. My mood seems a bit better, too.

I will try to go a little lighter on nuts and oils. I think that could be a downfall of this, so I am monitoring myself with that. During the holiday times, I did try lots of different recipes out that were mostly higher in oils/fats and nuts, but I think because I no longer eat bread, pasta, potatoes or rice, that is why I lost some weight even with those heavier foods like the oils/nuts.

A person who has extra money, could eat a whole different variety of fruits and veggies, but on a lower income, which I am on, I kind of just stick to simple items that are easy to keep on hand like bananas, oranges, romaine lettuces, etc. In summer there will be so much more to choose from and I am excited about that. Take care all. :-) PS I tried some "Zumba Gold" today. It is a fun dance exercise for those of us in these middle age years. I really liked it! :-)

Positive Living and Aging by Connie Webb

I want to age gracefully and hope I am on that path. I gave up makeup years ago and am okay with that. My gray hair is really coming in now. I don't usually notice it, but last night the lighting was such that it was really noticeable. I started to think about hair dyes and realized that is not so healthy. Then I thought of henna and then said it would just be another chore to add onto my life. So just going natural seems the easiest. It is mostly the media that portrays aging as a bad thing. So we are told to use this makeup, use this hair color, buy these certain clothes, look this certain way. Well, I can only be me and natural it is. What you see is what you get.

It is fun at times to dress up and look our best. Nothing wrong with that at all. The thing is to just be happy with who you are inside. Part of being happy inside does depend on what you put into your body and your mind, too. If I was to fill my mind with all the bad news stories or sit around and talk about a lot of dark depressing things, then I can't think that I am going to be so happy. Filling my mind with positive stories and talking about uplifting things helps me with my happiness. My physical well being is important too which includes healthy eating, exercise and good sleep. So I try to make sure those things are happening, too.

Another thing is spirituality. I am not talking religion here. Just a spiritual sense that we are not all alone and that there really is some kind of a Power helping us and guiding us daily to positive and constructive things if we allow this Power to help us. I think we all will come to our own understanding of some kind of a spiritual nature. It doesn't have to be anything we learned in a book or it can be. But trusting that we are not all alone is really helpful. It can help calm any fears we have and when we reach out to something greater than us it helps us with any stresses we have and can comfort us. So spirituality is a good thing to implement into positive living. 

I think being outdoors in nature is a good way to see that there really has to be something behind all the wonders that are out there in this big world. I love walks to the beach and seeing whale spouts and backs of whales. Love seeing deer and all the different birds. Love the beautiful flowers that bloom almost year long where I live in Northern California. This all helps me with a better spirit and helps me to a better mood when I appreciate all the good things there really are in this world.

Other things like hope and an optimistic outlook on life are all good at helping you with your aging process. Laughing is another great tool at helping you to a lighter mood. Love watching comedy movies and comedians.

Love is the greatest with helping me with a good mood, too. I think of all the people I like and love and that helps me have a good mood. I also think back to times when I was depressed and didn't feel like I even liked or loved anyone due to the dark depression I was in. So I am so grateful that I can now like and love many people. I had to learn to like and love myself, too. I kind of think that liking and loving others, helped me to learn to like and love myself more, too.

Another thing is forgiveness. There are many things I have had to forgive in this lifetime of mine. Staying with forgiveness and letting go of anger has helped lots. I just can't control everything. Bad things have happened, but I don't have to allow them to wreck my day or my life. I can learn to let these things go from my mind and just concentrate on all the other good things that are in my life. That makes for more positive living, too.

An important point about forgiveness that I learned was that if I can't forgive someone to just ask some Power greater than me to forgive that person for me. That helped me lots. Now I don't have to feel bad if I truly do not have it in my heart to forgive someone. Instead I just tell the truth to this unseen Power and say something like, "Look, I can't say I truly forgive this person for all the hurt they caused me, so will you please forgive them for me and I trust you will." This relieves me and helps me to let go of hurt and anger. I am grateful I learned this at a young age from a very dear friend.

Learning new things - This is by far the best thing for aging. Continue to learn new things. Continue to study. Continue to be open-minded. This all keeps life interesting and fun.

Hope you have a positive day no matter what your age. Keep taking good care of you and I will do the same here.

Today's Events in the life of a middle-aged Raw Food Vegan

This morning was a bit lazy here as I did more things throughout the week already. Just relaxed in the morning. Did lots of reading and watching positive things on Youtube. I usually subscribe to raw foodists channels there and get inspiration from them with recipes and other positive messages.

Later on I did go for a walk to the beach and back with my walking group. Some pretty big waves at the beach today that were fun to see. 

Today's food so far:
Got it together fairly late so I had a 'brunch" of a smoothie of: Frozen banana slices, large orange, fuji apple grated, baby greens and some lentil sprouts thrown in for some extra protein. Also, had a handful of sunflower seeds. I wasn't even hungry till hours later.

This evening: Huge salad of: Romaine Lettuce, Tomatoes, Grated carrots, sprouted lentils, avocado and some sunflower seeds. Had my favorite made up salad dressing of: 1 tablespoon cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, 1 tsp tahini, 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar - healthy kind, 1 tablespoon soy sauce (will buy tamari later when I get ahold of it as that is wheat free), and 1 tablespoon lemon juice. For dessert I had a fuji apple that was so delicious. Fuji apples are my favorite ever - they are so good and feel like a really nice treat. I sometimes will grate one into a bowl and just enjoy eating them that way. You could add some cinnamon to it, too.

This evening I am watching some of the latest American Idol episodes. Some of the singers are pretty good so far that they are letting go through, so that is great. It is sad when some of those young folks don't make it through. So heartbreaking for them. The music industry sure is a tough road to go, but I guess if you are really, really good, there probably will be no stopping that person. It is so neat how well Kelly Clarkson has done all beginning with American Idol. I read recently that Kelly lived out of her car at one time, too! Amazing she has achieved so much.

So this day was pretty much lazy, but it is okay. I had so many hectic days in the past that I am okay with some lazy type of days. Take care all. 

Raw Food Vegan Journey by Connie Webb

I started my raw food vegan journey on Dec. 3, 2013 at the age of 56 years old. I really like this lifestyle. I like how I feel. I like how the weight is just dropping that I have tried for years to get to budge. It is absolutely amazing. No longer do I have cravings for any junky foods. I am just happy eating fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds and sprouted lentils/garbanzos. Very simple. Nothing elaborate.

I did rely on making some more gourmet raw foods over the holidays and that was fun, too. The bonus is all the foods I made were all good for me and for my two adult kids. They were not any junk foods. Just lots of good whole foods.

I heard my first complaint today about me not losing any more weight. I am in this for the way I feel. If I lose some more weight, it is just a bonus. I am not focusing on my weight. I am focusing on health and eating healthy meals at each meal and healthy snacks for any snacks.

I was kind of thinking that people will notice me much thinner as time goes on, but I know I am healthy. I am older, so people will assume whatever they want to assume when they see me thinner, but that is okay. I don't base my life on what other people "think" any longer. Another bonus of the aging process.

I have noticed I have lots more energy than usual. I did go through some "detox" digestive type issues over the first few weeks of this raw food journey, but things have settled way down now and my body is used to getting lots of healthy items and I actually can say that I crave really healthy whole foods now. I no longer want all that stuff in packages any longer. What a change.

Well, this I do not want to be another "fad" for me. I am feeling healthy and want this as a lifestyle. I watch lots of motivating speakers on youtube about this raw food diet and it helps me stay inspired.

I thought I would try and document this journey just to see where I am at. Take care all who read this and if you don't go fully raw, just adding some extra fruits and veggies can really make you feel better. Have a good today!