Raven's Journal

[sksamboots]

Hey you,

Thanks for sharing your journey. Glad to be here with ya

[raven]

sksamboots, I'm glad to be here with *you*!

[raven]

Okay, so yesterday lunch was delayed about two hours (this is really unusual for me but i'm doing a lot of extra work each day on the blog). I was definitely thinking about eating high calorie density food... but i didn't all day, beyond rice cakes. I snacked on relishes while i worked, and knew i would eat eventually, and i made it through. Then for supper, i ate some rice crackers instead of a low density food... no fat, at least. And the pears were more than one serving of fruit, since a pear is about twice the calories of an apple or orange. I didn't even think about it, just grabbed some food and sat down and ate it.

After i had been on MWL two months, i tried to eat VAD (Vegetarian American Diet - actually vegan but high in fat) again two meals a week, and got addicted and ate more than i planned, and went through a grieving period as real as any grief i have ever had from the loss of someone near to me ... i cooked a couple of meals of high fat food, and ate them. Then i started thinking about how people have said that keeping a journal helps, and i thought i would do that when i was eating better... i thought about that for awhile, then realized i needed it *now* so i started, and i have been doing pretty good ever since i did.

I think it is partly because i know i have to report anything i eat, but it is also because i do not feel alone now. We are all walking, trudging, or skipping down the same road...

Wednesday's Meals:

green jasmine tea

Breakfast:
Mexican veggies with black beans and brown rice
pear

Snack:
carrot and cucumber sticks
rice cakes
green jasmine tea
blueberry tea

Lunch:
Soup for a Cold (collards, butternut, carrot, burdock)(my neighbors were sick)

Supper:
carrot and cucumber sticks
Soup for a Cold
rice crackers
pear

Thank you for being here!

[bunsofaluminum]

oh, burdock! tell me how to use that in recipes? I have some growing in my side yard, and have yanked up some of it (it IS hardy, isn't it...) but left one nice big plant.

It's for coughs, right? somehow, I can imagine using it in a tea as medicine, but not in a soup as food!

wow. Actually, this is sorta turning on the light for me in a big way. huh. Really free food! Didn't have to plant it or anything. It's just...there.

also, do you put a lot of garlic in your Soup for a Cold? Garlic adds a lot of flavor and is an anti-viral. Just wondering.

looks like you're doing great. I can feel for your sense of loss with leaving behind some favorite foods. We really do build emotions around what we eat. (((HUG))) keep on going!

[raven]

Thanks for the hug Heidi. I posted the recipe for Soup for a Cold today on my blog... the link is in my signature. I don't know the medicinal uses for burdock, although i first heard of it when i was eating macrobiotic. It's pretty mild in cooking. You peel it. Probably younger roots are tastier. Yes, lots of garlic... a whole head would not be too much with a bad head cold... which i don't have... i just like the soup. I meant to freeze some for the next cold but i ate and gave it all away...

[raven]

Yesterday i got smart and nuked a bunch of potatoes which i snacked on while i worked.

Friday's Meals:

green jasmine tea

Breakfast:
oatmeal with almond milk and sugar
Soup for a Cold with 1 c. black beans
pear (not a whole one)
plum spice tea

Snacking while i worked:
Several potatoes, the last one with barbecue sauce
carrot and cucumber sticks
green jasmine tea
twig and ginger tea
grapes (just one serving)
taste of new recipe for buckwheat pancakes for my husband (no oil, just not MWL)

Supper:
pear (a whole one)
blueberry tea

Have a great day everybody!

[raven]

I did a lot of cooking yesterday, partly for my blog, but also for some neighbors we invited. But they called that they were sick and couldn't come. My husband suggested i call my good friends and they were glad to come, and they took home the leftovers, except for the stuff that was MWL, and the tortilla chips, which i left for my husband.

I don't know how to tell if something is right without tasting it, but i had a plate of relishes right in front of me on the counter, and i ate those even though i was looking at the more calorie dense foods. I ate a couple of rice cakes when i realized that i wasn't going to get around to eating lunch. It was mostly on the regular McDougall Program, except too much sugar for every day, the grape juice, and also for the avocado guacamole that i made but only had a small taste of the avocado to see if it was ripe - really! My puppy came into the kitchen when i cut up the avocado and ate two pieces with great gusto.

I put salt in everything, 1/8 t. per serving of each food, or about 3/8 t. for each person for the total meal, but tasting it with an eye towards someone used to salt in everything, i thought it was all very bland. I put the salt shaker on the table, and they used it.

Saturday's Meals:
rose petal black tea with 1 t. sugar and 2 T. soymilk

Breakfast:
oatmeal with 1 t. sugar and 1/4 c. almond milk
McDougall cup Split Pea Soup
orange
blueberry tea

Snack:
green jasmine tea
carrot and cucumber sticks
rice cakes
tastes of cooking

Dinner:
grape juice
no fat tortilla chips with garlic and chili powders
pressed salad - cabbage, carrot, onion, and daikon
tamale pie with tofu, zucchini, carrot, red pepper and chili pepper
potato spinach enchiladas with red pepper enchilada sauce
rose cupcakes

The recipes for the dinner are on my blog, if anyone is interested. The pressed salad was from 11/15. I made the pomegranate salad for the photograph the day i got the lettuce at the store, because it doesn't keep well at all. I got a head of lettuce which keeps better to make it again, but i ran out of time.
Raven

[talkingmountain]

Man o man, can I be your neighbor???? I'd happily come over and eat at your house ANY time

[raven]

Talkingmountain, let me know if you're going to be near Santa Cruz any time... but if you saw it here you might decide you'd rather not live here... mountain living is not for everyone... we are off grid, and had our small house built on the outside but are finishing the inside ourselves, while we live in it.. it has been six years so far... my husband is very handy but has a lot of other things to do plus he has chronic fatigue syndrome and can't work on anything some days. I was very messy as a child, and am comparatively neat now, but not what anybody would call tidy... I usually keep the kitchen clean though!
Raven

[bunsofaluminum]

me, too! I love it that you cook for your neighbors. You must make friends easily

Love your blog. I want to try the pressed salad.

[raven]

I had a pretty bad migraine. After years of having worse ones, i have learned to keep on working with all but the really horrendous ones, or i would never have gotten anything done, as for a couple of years on a pain scale from 1 to 10 with 10 being any higher and you think you will pass out... i had ones from 4 to 7 an average of four a week. I early on discovered that i could cook when moving around cleaning or sitting and thinking was impossible... so i did that, and dishes, and writing on my blog. Yesterday's migraine got up to a 3 for a couple of hours... you move and it pounds in your head, so you move slowly and carefully.

I had extra caffeine, and naproxen, which a pain specialist recommended, but neither helped very much... codeine would have helped, but then i would have had to have taken a nap. Food always helps, but i didn't want to go that way.

Sunday's Meals:
Awake black tea (2 bags) with soymilk and sugar - 2 cups

oatmeal with almond milk and sugar
twig tea

green jasmine tea

Lunch:
spinach and potato with homemade enchilada sauce
apple

Supper:
carrot and jicama sticks
wild rice and kale with shallot mushroom miso gravy
corn on the cob
apple twig tea

Have a great day everybody!
Raven

[Letha..]

Hi Raven,
Your blog is looking good. I’m gonna try those buckwheat pancakes after I reach my goal. I added you to the blog roll on my MWL site. Have a great day.
Letha

[raven]

Letha, Thanks so much! I am on Google, but only if you type in my exact name. My husband says i need a lot of links before i will appear anywhere else.

Hope you and Mary ride out the storm okay. I used to live in Forestville, CA, with large second growth redwoods. I would listen to the wind estimate for the day and then see how far the trees bent... once with 70 m.p.h. winds they bent about a foot! I guess you'll see even more than that with 90 m.p.h. winds...

[raven]

I tried cutting down my tea by having several bags of decaf tea, and i made it through the day without a headache, but i slept an hour more, and i can't afford that right now so i will try again when i have more time.

Have a healthy day everyone!

Monday's Meals:
green jasmine tea

Breakfast:
oatmeal with almond milk and sugar
McDougall cup black bean soup
tangerine
red raspberry tea

Snacks while working:
carrot and jicama slices
cup of tea with 4 bags of decaf tea
red zinger tea

Lunch:
French veggies with scalloped potatoes

Supper:
carrot and rutabaga strips
French veggies with scalloped potatoes
apple
blueberry tea

[sksamboots]

A healthy day to you too