It's Over!

The CLEANSE AMERICA Juice Fast is over.  I have been so busy that I didn't have time to post more about my experience. 
I'm so glad I did it!  It's been a little difficult getting back into things.  Especially with all the allergies and sensitivities.  I thought I would just live a raw life style but I decided against that.  I will always do juicing.  (except when I'm in Utah because I can't take my juicer with me.) And I will forever eat more produce than anything else in a day. 
Something I love about eating a raw diet is that I pretty much can eat whenever, whatever and however much I want and not have to worry about calories or too much fat, etc.  I LOVE that.  I hate worrying about what and how much I'm eating.
The other day I was worried about getting enough calcium.  So I looked up all the produce that has calcium.  I was shocked!  You can really get 100% of all your nutrients (protein included) just from produce.  It's amazing to think.  No more spending hundreds of dollars on good quality vitamins!  Well, I still have to because I can't get my kids to eat all the produce they should.  I can't even get them to eat enough fruit.  But, I'm still working on it.  The thing I don't like about eating a raw diet is that sometimes, I like cooked food!  So, I think I'm leaning more towards a vegan diet.  Although, I do like to bake with eggs.  So many of my gluten/sugar free recipes call for eggs.  They act as the gluten, something that ground flax can't do.  I just need to look harder for better recipes, I guess.
On the last day of the cleanse I went to a huge lunch ceremony.  I went prepared with juice and the hope that they would have good fresh fruit and salad.  While we were standing in line to get into the ceremoney, they started bringing the food out.  Oh my!  It was spaghetti, fettuccini Alfredo, fried potatoes, broccli and cauliflower, etc.  Many of my favorite foods!  They did have a nice fruit salad.  The green salad looked yummy but it had lots of cheese and only dairy ladened dressings.  The veggies and potatoes were both cooked and covered in butter. (I asked)  So, I ate my fruit and drank my juice.  It was great!  It was my last temptation to get through and I did it without feeling deprived or tempted to eat any of it.  I think I can handle a life of no junk!

Zack's birthday was this weekend.  I had grand plans of making gluten & sugar free cake and dairy/sugar free ice cream.  I had talked about it all week with Zack and he was excited too.  But at the last minute he decided he wanted a "real" cake and "real" icecream that he could pick out, even if it meant stomach aches and diarhea.  So, that's what I did...BOTH.  I ate the chocolate pound cake and strawberry ice cream and all the kids ate the junk.  The kids were happy.  Although, Jakob got a stomach ache.  That makes me happy!  He eats sooo much junk food and is sooooo picky.  So the more he hurts after eating junk, the better because it will eventually lead him to eating better.  Zack, his poor little stomach has hurt his whole life and he's had diahrea his whole life (until this year) so it doesn't bother him that much.  Plus, he knows that most of the time he doesn't get to eat junk.   I was a little tempted to eat the pizza.  It looked and smelled sooooo yummy.  I did take ONE very little bite.  Just enough to savor the taste.  And surprisingly, that was all I needed.

I'm glad I had this experience.  My taste buds have changed a little and my desire to eat so much healthier has changed.  And my knowledge has increased too. 
I didn't lose that much weight.  But since December 27th I have lost 15 pounds.  I still have 14 more to go to be at my ideal weight.  Only 10 to be a weight that I would be happy with.  Now I just need to up my excersising!