Tuesday:

Back was hurting when I woke up, and I didn't have the macadamia nuts to make breakfast, so I juiced a grapefruit and four oranges.

By lunch I was feeling better, and made the Nut Sushi. Ground almonds and some coconut meat was the "rice" portion. Avocado, cucumber, tomato, cilantro, and sprouts went in the nori along with the Nut mixture. The result was delicious and decedent! I ate every single bite!

My hubby picked up the macadamia nuts, and so I had breakfast for dinner! Chocolate Silk by Storm. His recipe called for carob, but I used raw cacao powder. I discussed the pro's and con's of these a few days ago, if you're interested. Anyway, it had macadamia nuts, young coconut water, a super ripe banana, dates, honey, cacao powder, olive oil, and salt. The result was a luscious l chocolate shaker that I will keep in my permanent recipe file!

I did well with exercise today. Upper body weights for 15 min. in the morning, and 30 min. on my hand cycle in the afternoon. For those who haven't seen one, here's what it looks like:

I am an incomplete paraplegic, so my legs rest on either side of the front wheel, and I pedal with my arms. Using your arms to move your body weight is three times harder than using your legs. So 30 mins. on a hand cycle is approximately 1 to 1 1/2 hours on a bicycle. Whew! I set two new records: I went my fastest - 6.64 mph. and my furthest - 3.66 miles. Yay me!

Monday, and start of The Garden Diet 28 Day Transition To Raw Program. My starting weight is 175 pounds.

For those of you who don't know me, or haven't seen me out of my wheelchair, this is the true me. Clothing hides a multitude of sins :)

Breakfast was 16 oz. of OJ. Yummm!

We were out shopping, so I had a snack of 1/2 a raw coco/coconut bar. My husband had Godiva chocolate. Sigh...

Lunch was Tabouli. This was a recipe from my cleanse that I absolutely loved. Cilantro, parsley, green onions, tomato, avocado, hemp seeds, lemon, olive oil, and salt. Better than you can imagine.

Dinner was supposed to be Gazpacho, but I ended up cleaning out two refrigerators and putting away a week's worth of fresh fruits and veggies, so dinner was a piece of durian. My fav and totally allowed on this diet!

It's not too late to start the diet, sign up at http://28daysraw.com. Follow along with me as I continue my raw vegan journey!

Sunday, and the last day of the cleanse. My ending weight was 175, a loss of five pounds. It's less than I'd hoped, but considering I was sick the first two weeks, then bed-bound for three days due to my disability, it's not bad. Also, I was only able to exercise four times, and that certainly was a factor.

Breakfast was two grapefruits, eaten traditional style. Lunch was supposed to be Sprout Salad, but we were running around and I didn't have time to make the dressing, so I had a couple oranges on the road.

Dinner was a celebration of the New Year, and a new roomie, so we went out for a non-raw-non-vegan naughty dinner. I still ate healthy, but it was weird eating hot food for the first time in 21 days. It was awesome.

Tomorrow starts my 28 day Transition To Raw Program. This time, I'll have four whole weeks to lose weight, and should be able to workout every day.

Still loving the raw food. I feel great, am using less medication, and when I do exercise I am able to go further and faster. I'm looking forward to doing another month of tasty and nutritious recipes.

Join me at http://28daysraw.com.

Saturday:

Feeling better, able to make all my meals today. Breakfast was my fav, OJ!

Lunch was a new recipe, Almond Avocado Mousse. Sounds gross, right? It was awesome! It had soaked almonds, raw, organic cocoa powder (more on that later), avocado, mint and a strawberry. Mix into a mouse and it was chocolate heaven!! Like dessert for lunch :)

Now the recipe called for carob powder. There is a debate amongst vegans about carob vs. chocolate, mostly due to the caffeine. Personally, I am on the cacao side. One, it just tastes better. Two, the recipe called for one tablespoon. I don't know how much caffeine is in one tablespoon, but it wasn't enough to affect me. Three, I think the positives, nutrient-wise outweigh the negatives. To each his own, read up and go with with what you are comfortable with. If you want the delicious, amazing recipe, sight up for the cleanse at http://21daysraw.com.

Dinner was a Kale Salad. Kale, with vinegar, salt, hemp seeds, nutritional yeast, cumin, coriander (the spice, not the fresh herb), and olive oil. It was surprisingly good. I was a little worried about all the spices and just kale without any other greens, but this is another recipe I'll be holding onto. Along with the mousse!

Yummy!

I exercised today, 33 min. on my hand cycle. I'm getting faster, and going further. Yay me!

Friday:

Still hurting, but I was able to get out of bed and make all my meals. Breakfast was Ambrosia. Macadamia nuts, dates, strawberries, young coconut water, honey, and water. It made a creamy smoothie I drank over ice. This is another recipe I'll hold on to. I let my roommate try it and she loved it so much I promised I'd save her a cup. No problem as it made seven cups, was rich and filled me up.

Yummy!

Lunch was a nice, fresh Cucumber Dill Salad. I'd never had dill before, and found I love it. It was big, but not too filling, so it was a great follow up to breakfast.

Dinner is Almond Mylk. I'm peeling almonds as soon as I'm done updating my blog, and it will be a great rich, creamy dinner to put me to sleep. 

Back feeling better today and I should be able to go out on my hand cycle tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Thursday:

We were up until 5:00 am this morning. I woke up at 10:00 am by my medication alarm and knew I was in trouble. The pain was unbearable. I took my meds and asked my hubby to bring me an apple and a banana, my scheduled breakfast, in an hour. He went back into the living room and promptly fell asleep. As did I. He awoke and woke me up at 5:00 pm! Whoops! I ate breakfast in bed and took more meds. Finally, about 9:00 pm I was able to get out of bed and make lunch.

Lunch was Lemon Cream Pie. Dried, raw, shredded coconut, lemon, honey, banana, and flax oil. Again, no pic, but it was positively luscious! Like having dessert for lunch. This is something I will definitely crave and make whether I remain raw or not.

Dinner was nut sushi. The recipe looked amazing, but it was too complicated for me to make with my back the way it was, and too late at night. I was in too much pain to be hungry anyway.

I spent the whole day in bed. My own fault for over doing it the day before.

Wednesday:

New year's eve and doing a lot of running around. Breakfast was blueberries and raspberries. No time for the tacos that were scheduled for lunch, so I had two cups of papaya.

All day we were cleaning, shopping, and cooking for our annual New Year's Eve party. I finally had time to make dinner which was Kale Subs. Avocado, tomato, cilantro, and seasonings all wrapped in kale leaves. I proudly ate it in front of a room full of horrified carnivores :) No pic, but it looked like the salsa/kale tacos from last week.

Food, desserts, goodies, drinks, and a keg of Newcastle and I didn't cheat once. So proud of myself. I did, however, take a lot of medication to get through the night. That came back to bite me in the ass.