leaving

i'll be on my way back to arizona tomorrow. i'm taking the long way around and going up to utah first. our collards and turnip greens are just now getting big enough to eat so i've been eating all i can of them, both raw and cooked for two days. and if you think you don't like them, man, you don't know what you're missing. i'm sorry to be leaving them. hopefully some of my relatives will come and get them. the young collards are really good in fruit smoothies. if you've never grown them give them a try. they are really mild flavored when they are young and fresh picked......bye for now

busy summer

well it's been awhile since i've blogged anything. i've had a busy summer. i've also been a little bit lazy. turns out i like reading other peoples blogs more than i like writing in mine. we had a really good garden this year. lots of tomatoes, okra, peppers, corn, peas, and beans. put a lot of it in the freezer. planted cherry trees, bluberry bushes, and blackberry vines and one more pomagranate tree this year. just got a ginkgo tree at the flea market today to plant. we planted two mulberry trees last fall, one is doing pretty well, the other one doesn't look to good but maybe it will make it. we also put up a porch swing so i had to spend plenty of time in that. (when i say we, i don't mean i actually dug any holes, my significant other did all that, but i did supervise the actual digging of said holes. and i'm sure he appreciated my help.) been doing high raw. (with a little junky food thrown in every so often.) ate tons of watermelon and other fruit. there's a weekly flea market close to where i live that i get most of my food from in the summer. it's a lot cheaper than the grocery store. we go on wednesdays. it's my favorite day of the week. it's also time for me to head back to arizona. time flies when you're having fun. but the temp here is dropping and i don't like being cold, so here's hoping for a nice warm winter in az........later raw peeps

woods

hello rawfooders (and everybody else) i live on four acres in the country. this is a picture of a little wooded area in our back pasture, taken by my sons girlfriend. i thought it was a really nice picture so i put it up for you to see. anybody see any edible weeds in there......later tater

u-pick it

went to a u-pick blueberry farm yesterday. my dad and his wife went with me. we each picked a gallon apiece. it took awhile because not a lot of the berries were ripe yet. and also because we were eating some too. we hadn't planned on going so by the time we got there it was already hot. we had a pretty good time and got some good berries. put some in the freezer and ate a bunch. happy eating everybody.......later

choking down the wheatgrass

that's right , i said it. choking down the wheatgrass. now, i don't normally do things on the spur of the moment, no , i ponder, i study , read this book and that book. i have before me right now a book called the wheatgrass book. i do believe i read it twice. but oddly, nowhere in this book does it say that wheatgrss juice tastes like green pee.(and don't ask me how i know what pee taste like. if you follow david wolf you'll know how i know. wink, wink) this wheatgrass better deliver some great results. i'm hoping to look like i'm ten in about a week. no, i'm just kidding. make it two weeks. but seriously raw foodes,i have amazed myself at the things i'll do to get healthier. but when you are sick and tired of being sick and tired you have to try things to see if they work. and of all the things i have tried, eating more fruits and vegges has helped me the most. so, i will keep on trying new things and i hope everybody else does too. and, i hope we keep blogging about it. my plan for this summer is to choke down a lot of wheatgrass, juice everything that stands still long enough for me to catch it, and cleanse, cleanse, cleanse. i also have a nice garden so alot of the stuff i juice will be coming from there. and i forgot to mention sprouting. i'm going to be eating huge amounts of sprouts. i've already grown and eaten, sunflower, mung bean, and alfalfa sprouts. i've been a busy girl. all for now.......later gator

landed

well i did , after three days, land in alabama. the drive back went fairly well, no bad traffic, bad weather or near misses. what about my eating plan and staying in touch with my teeny weeny lap top? well no wifi, that's what. my eating plan gradually fell apart, but not too badly. but make no mistake about it, trying to find some place healthy to eat is like trying to hunt down bigfoot with a blindfold on. there is nothing on any interstate off-ramp that could, even in your wildest dreams be mistaken for food that is good for you. subway used to be my go to food in a pinch, so second day out and hungry, i thought i would get one. bad mistake. tasted very chemically (is that a word, and if it is, is it spelled right, or does anybody care). so, to make a long story short, i landed. landed, in what can only be dscribed as humidity hell. my, goddess, i feel like i am in the freaking amazon. when i was in arizona, it was like being in a big giant dehydrator, wind and super dry heat. it's taken me awhile to adjust to the change in my routine and time zone. there is a three hour time difference. i know, there's only supposed to be a two hour difference but that's another wierd little story. not interesting enough to tell here. anyway back to my trials and tribulations. grew my first tray of wheatgrass. that's the good news. the bad news is that wheatgrass tastes like green crap. i know it's hard to believe but, really, it taste crappy. but i intend to persevere and develope a taste for it. i developed a taste for diet coke and if you can develope a taste for that, you can do it for just about anything. and i did love my diet coke. so i'm looking forward to loving my wheatgrass. i want to give it a really good try. i also ordered my own colonic kit. i know people have varying opinions on colonics and some people will say you need to have a professional do it ,(and i would agree) but i live in the back of beyond with limited funds and i'm a do it yourself kind of girl. so, i do it or it doesn't get done. the reason i'm doing wheatgrass and colonics is that other people have done them with good results and i want to see what will happen. i haven't done them before because i'm of the mind that they don't sound too natural, but nothing we do now is too natural so i decided to give it a shot and see what happens. i'm hoping for good things. all for now raw foodies .......catch you later.

hanging around

hanging around killing time right now. waiting on my son to return from a road trip to utah (love utah, beautiful state) to start my road trip to alabama since he is going with me. last day of work was wednesday. we had a nice potluck (or carry-in as one of my co-workers calls it) been eating a little bit of junk lately, but also lots and lots of fruit and vegges. i don't think that cancels out the junk though. wish it did. i think leaving my job every summer makes me a little nervous and changes my routine as far as eating and exercising are concerned. takes a few days to get a new groove going. also road trips seem to scream out for the junkiest junk in the world, but i have a plan.(i always have a plan) and the plan is to have plenty of lara bars, dried fuit and nuts, and lemon water sweetened with stevia. and fresh fruit of course. that's the plan. genuis, right. i'll let you know how it's working out. how are you going to do that, you might ask (well you might) well i'm going to do it on my super duper teeny weeny lap top computer my daughter gave me for a combo birthday-mothers day present. sweeeeet! hello to my peeps at work who are not even reading this, evan though i gave them strict insructions to tune in everyday .......later raw people

last day at work

today is the last day i'm working for awhile. yeah! i'll miss my peeps at work but i'm ready to start my no work time. i'm planning to have a summer of cleansing this year to see if i get better results than i've been getting from no cleansing. just eating a lot more raw food has done wonders for me but i need to do more. i'll lay out my plans later and post my results. there's probably going to be a lot of bowel talk going on , so get ready for some fun!............later tater

juicy

up early today ,walking before it gets to hot. it's going to get up to 100 today. anyway i'm pounding down the juice lately. getting ready to go back to alabama in a week. making plans to go to the next level with raw food........later gator

score!

found another good deal at a yard sale on saturday. must have been my lucky weekend. anyway, i got a majic bullet (get your mind out of the gutter now).i had been wanting one, but didn't want to spend 50.00 dollars for it. i got it for 5.00 so if i don't use it i haven't wasted quite as much money. i'm not only a raw fooder, i'm also a bit of a tightwad.........later raw peeps

Smoothie Mug

Here's my daughter with her smoothie cup. (She just loves smoothies!) I told her she needed a bigger smoothie cup. Bigger is better. ;)

rare find

best day ever! you're not going to believe this. got a vitamix 3600 hardly used at a yard sale for 20.00 dollars. TOLD YOU THAT YOU WOULD'T BELIEVE ME! it even has the spigot thing on it. i've been going to yard sales for 25 years and have never seen one so i could't believe my luck. but i always say, if you wait long enough, whatever you want will show up. of course, most people won't wait that long for stuff but i wasn't a raw fooder then so i could live without it. anyway, happy vitamix day to me. and if there is anybody out there needing something, i hope it comes your way............. adios raw peeps

i'm back

right after i wrote the last post one of my favorite uncles passed away, and i just lost interest in blogging for awhile. now i'm feeling better, so i'll be back at it a few times a week if anybody but me is reading this. i haven't been particularly good or bad with the raw thing, doing pretty much what i've been doing. eating mostly raw most of the time. today is my birthday! 57! how did that happen? one day at a time i guess. anyway i decided i would have limon potato chips and a coke for a birthday treat. i had limon potato chips for thanksgiving too. so i have certain things i like on special days and that way i don't feel deprived. my tongue feels cut up from the chips though.thats all for now.see all you raw foodes later.......

my butt is dragging

hello everybody! i seem to have lost some of my high energy i've had for the last two or three weeks. maybe i'm doing too much exercise, or maybe not enough. who knows? not me. i have these ups and downs all the time, but i think i have noticed something over the last few weeks that might be helpful to me. i seem to feel alot better if i'm getting more greens in. my moods seem better, and also my energy. so, over the next few weeks i'm going to make more of an effort to get those in. right now i've been eating one or two avocados with tons of celery,lots of oranges,a large salad in the evening ,the occasional lara bar, and also some nut butters. not very 8-10-10. also the ocassional blip which i have spoken about before. but all in all,still doing pretty good. rock on, all you raw food warriors..... the rare raw southern bird

checking in

just checking in today. not much going on. i am having alot of energy lately. still doing pretty good on the raw foods. it gets pretty routine after you've done it a while. like i said before, i started dabbling in raw food in 1999 while i was living in tucson az.(best place ever) my daughter and i went to a raw food demo. we split a family sized hershey chocolate bar in the car. the lady giving the demo was very buff and nice looking, but unfortunatly she cut her finger right at the start of the thing and was kind of bleeding as she went. think julia child and saturday night live, if you saw that episode. anyway she made a date nut cake, some spagetti with a maranara sauce, and a couple of other things i don't remember. it was all good. what i do remember is the ginormous stomachache i had after that. probably the worst one i ever had. around the same time i found shazzie's blog and david wolf's site. there wasn't a lot on the web at the time, so the first thing i started doing was a fruit smoothie everyday. i would do that a while and forget about it awhile then go back to it. but what i did do was continue to read about it and surround myself with as much information as i could. and i still do that everyday. i listen to cd's i've downloaded when i'm in the car and when i'm walking. i continue to buy and read books and reread them, because alot of times i will pick up something i didn't get the first time i read it. i was always reading diet and health books over the years but when i finally read fit for life(this was way before raw food came up)it made so much sense. i tried that for awhile but would slip back into the s.a.d. diet.(i was mostly vegetarian then anyway) but a very junky vegetarian. anyway i have evolved over a long period of time to where i am now, able to eat and enjoy raw food most of the time. if i do eat something cooked i enjoy it and i don't worry about it.(but i always pay for it later in how i feel). anyway, that's a little bit about how i came to be a raw food eater. see ya later...... the rare raw southern bird

mysteries of life

i know there are many, many, mysterious mysteries in life, and that you yourself may have pondered endlessly on some of them, as many of us have. say, for instance, the beauty of a flower, or the miracle of creating a baby (of which i have created four, with only the tiniest bit of help from my now ex-husband) or the awe inspiring beauty of a sunset. yes, there are many mysteries in life. and yet, i have a new one for you. perhaps one you have never heard of. a brand new mystery. so exciting. and here it is. wait for it..... wait for it......... HOW IN THE WORLD CAN A PERSON (and i mean me) WALK 53 MILES IN 10 DAYS AND NOT LOSE ONE FREAKING OUNCE! now really, how can that possibly be. that can't be possible you say, well, let me assure you that, yes indeed, it is true. in fact, is possible. i mean really, it boggles the mind doesn't it. think about it. 53 MILES. 53 longggg, longgggg miles. fifty-three miles. try to wrap your mind around it.( it's almost impossible, isn't it ) the only answer i can come up with is, I MUST BE A FREAK OF NATURE. THE MOST EFFICIENT CALORIE BURNER THERE EVER WAS. yes, that must be it. but if anyone else out there in the great cyber world has a better answer i would love to here it. or if you have a mystery of your own i would love to ponder on it. while i'm walking, walking, walking. i have to go now,(i've got walking to do) but keep on keeping on, all you raw food warriors. bye, from the rare raw southern bird.

while i have access to a computer(mine is on the blink)i thought since it's the last day of the month i would give you(all one of you)an update on my monthly goals and get in a little bragging time.well..the buddha thing didn't work out like i planned it.i did listen to one cd on the topic of the buddha but didn't get around to reading the book i have on the subject.so he has to be rolled over for another time.(can one do that? i quess one can,if one wishes to.)and as far as the head stand goes,it didn't go.my neck was not happy about that,so it too will have to be rolled over.so now to the bragging(is it impolite to brag on one's self? because if it is, i'm gonna do it anyway)i walked 38 miles this week! yep that's right! count'em,38!i walked five miles a day monday thru friday and then did my own personal half marathon on saturday.(if my math is wrong don't anybody tell me.)(all one of you)(and i mean it)so i'm headed toward my goal of doing some long distance hiking.now i have to start working on my absolute terror of sleeping outside at night with all the bugs,the wild animals,the creepy crawlies,the no see'ums,the rain,the lightening,the crazy hiker killers(and they are out there,i just know it)rabid skunks(as if just being a regular old skunk wouldn't be bad enough).i hope i haven't scared anybody else out of the same dream,but it is something to think about.but you know what they say about fears(in case you don't,i'm going to tell you)FACE THEM.yea, easy for them to say.they'll be in a cozy bed at night.i could face them better if some one would go with me.(any takers,all one of you reading this)anyway it's something to think about while you're doing nothing.helps pass the time.so long till next time-----the rare raw southern bird.

so...hello everybody(all one of you)today i have a confession to make.i had a little blip in my raw food eating. just a little,tiny,teeny one.this is what it looked like,---/\---.see,nothing big.no worries(sometimes i like to think of myself as australian, because they have a way cool accent).good on ya mate.(see).anyway what happened was,i got caught in a little social situation where everybody wanted to go to macaroni grill,which is a good place to eat for most people,but not for me. their
idea of a nice salad is the size of a saucer,and i needed one the size of a swimming pool. i was hungry man.so...i decided to just eat regular food, just to go along,but what i really wanted was a bigggggg salad.now,i can hear everybody saying,yeah right.(all one of you)but it's true!so anyway i'm enjoying the food,having a good time,thinking this will be no problemo(sometimes i fancy myself as being a least partially spanish,or mexican,because they have the best accent ever!)i'll just continue on with my raw food after this tiny,teeny blip.you saw how tiny it was,right. why, i don't know if i should even call it a blip.what's tinier than a blip?anyway, we'er all having a nice time,singing country roads,take me home,all the way to my house.every thing is good,right? wronggggg!..what!..WHAT!..WHAT the H...E..DOUBLE L did you do? my stomach had woken up and was not happy.and if your stomach is not happy,you're not happy.so i said,stomach(that's what i call it)there's no need to get all bloaty,nausous,and sick feeling.i had what you might call a blip or possibly a bleep(after careful research i have determined that a bleep is definately smaller than a blip).and my stomach is like,OH NO YOU DIDN'T,and i'm like oh yes i did and it's like OH NO YOU DIDN'T and i'm like...well you get the drift of how that went.and let me just say, i't did not go well after that.no sleep,bad sick feeling all night.so the morale of this story(if there is one,and should't all stories have one)would be to make sure you don't piss off your stomach.(ever again)that's all i've got for now, so, i'll say aloha(because sometimes i like to pretend i'm in hawaii because they have the best weather ever)
keep on keeping on raw soldiers----the rare raw southern bird

so,hey i'm feeling good today.walked 9.3 miles in two and a half hours.raw food thing going good.thought i had put on some weight,but no,lost a pound!i've been eating a lot.no starving here.so,today i thought i would put in some info about me.i'm a nurse.yep a real pill pusher.i work in a small prison health unit. i don't know why they call it that since nobody there is the least bit interested in health,but that's what we call it.kind of a strange place to be when you don't believe all these different kinds of pills work.i've been a nurse since 1982 and have learned this along the way.gotta make a living some way though and this is the way i make mine.but i will say that all of the people i work with are great and they do a really good job working with the inmates.i always miss them when i'm gone for the summer.thank goodness i'm gone for the summer.i love the fact that i don't have to work full time,because the time it takes for the upkeep on myself since i turned fifty increases every year.there's the weight to watch,yoga to do,bunches of walking to do,wrinkle watching,skin brushing,enemas to take,raw food books to read,grey hair to color,various and sundry hobbies.it's down right exhausting.not to mention the sit ups,leg lifts,crunches,and that freaking pilates.talk about hard!oh and don't lets forget about those butt tighting torture exercises. and my butt still looks like it's trying to have an intimate meeting with the backs of my knees.but lucky for me, i'm no opera winfrey,because i love to exercise.(opera hates to exercise.i'm not making that up)you just can't tell by looking at me that i'm a lover of working out.also i want to say here before i forget,that picture of me over to the right is about 20 years old. of course i still look amazingly like it.(at least in my minds eye).anyway i'm planning to put up a more current one sometime or other.so be watching for it.that's all for now,bye, from the southern rare raw bird.

i'm really excited, i have followers. yea! one is my daughter,so she doesn't count as much, but the other one is a total stranger so i feel really excited about this. i feel almost famous. maybe one day i'll be almost as famous as bunny berry, wouldn't that be great! so now i feel this big obligation to be as funny as possible and to also make this as interesting as possible soooooo i'll ether have to make stuff up or make the crap i do seem really great!o.k. here i go.today i walked about four miles.we had some beautiful weather here in arizona today.i'm doing pretty good on my raw food.i do have passing thoughts of coke, pizzas,and french fries occasionally but i just let them float on by.eating alot of oranges and orange juice. i've had more fat from avocados and a little almond butter than i intended to,but i'ts just part of the process.no worries,just keep going in the right direction.i'm way past the beat myself up stage.got to make it sustainable,that's what i care about most.
to change the subject a little,i want to say, in case you haven't noticed,i can't type. right now i'm a hunt and peck kind of girl .hoping i'm going to get better fast.next time i plan to include some info about how and why i got into raw food.
bye now, from the rare raw southern bird.
ps: now to find jokes!!!!

well my exercise is getting better. i just find it really hard to get up when it's cold.not that it is to cold here in arizona where i spend the winter.yes folks,not only am i a rare raw southern bird,i'm a snowbird too.i work and live in arizona in the winter and live in alabama in the summer.pretty sweet deal.anyway back to rawness. i'm sticking really well to being raw,except for my salad dressings.i'm thinking thats close enough for now.loving my o.j.,eating tons of fruit especially oranges.feeling good and working on my goals for january. bye for now,the rare raw southern bird.

i have started the new year off with a whimper instead of a bang. i have had a little cold so didn't do anything for four days. i'm feeling better now so i'm back to my regular workouts of yoga and walking.i'm also working on moving my raw food to more of an 80/10/10 ratio by following dr.grahams book.i thought i was eating a lot of fruit before but now i feel like i am going to turn into a fruit tree. the hardist part of course is lowering the fat. but i'm working on it.i just got Simply Raw in the mail. if you don't know,it's about reversing diabetes in 30 days on a raw food diet.can't wait to watch it.anyway,so far have been doing well on my 100 day raw food challenge. haven't lost any weight yet though. i'm not going to worry about it, i'm just going to keep going. today is day eight.so thats all for today from the southern rare raw bird.

on january 1 i started a 100 day raw challenge. i have been raw for 30 days several times before with good results.so i want to take it a little further and see if i can get some amazing results. i am interested in doing some long distance trail walking in the future.the not to distant future i hope.i have some back and knee problems that i hope will resolve with a longer time on raw.i have already seen a lot of improvement in other health issues i have had.today is the third day and i have been eating a lot of bananas,tons of oj,salads,celery and avocados.the plan is to make sure i eat enough to stay pretty full.i want to transition more toward low fat,but i don't want to worry about it to much at first.i've made a lot of new goals for this year and raw food is just one of them.i'll be making goals for 30 days also.i've made two for january.the first one is to study information about the budda and the secnd one is to learn how to do a headstand.i've been doing yoga for two years so i thought it would be nice to be able to do that.so far my neck is not to happy about it so it might take longer than 30 days.anyway i want to start off my new year thinking and growing.see you later,from the southern rare raw bird.