july 17: we are experiencing technical difficulties, please stand by

argh! i get all caught up in blogging and online community, and what happens? my wifi stops working. i don't know why. but it meant that i couldn't work from home last night, not even to check my email, which meant that i had to come in to work early today, and isn't that what everyone wants to do? it's much harder to think and write and do this from work. i've got the next 3 days off as well, so i REALLY hope that it gets itself back up and running or else i shall go mad. just for fun.

so it's Day Five. here's what i'm noticing: my eyes look much clearer and sparklier. my skin has dramatically improved - i was getting lots of little individual pimples and roughness, thanks to all the chips and fried crap i was eating, and now all of that is, basically, peeling off. i don't look or feel like i've lost an ounce, but i'm not checking until monday - weekly weigh-ins. my eyes, in the process of getting clearer and brighter, have been really gunky and oozy - pretty, right? - so i haven't been able to wear a scrap of makeup for days. i'm still a sleeping machine - last night, my body was sooooooo tired, i couldn't sleep. couldn't move, couldn't sleep. i could feel every muscle, and it felt so good just to lie there in the bed. i hope that the body tiredness goes away soon so i'll start to feel like exercising more.

yesterday i ate all of my food, every scrap that i had prepared, and even drank more than my whole gallon of required beverages! i had an extra quart of tea! i thought that was awesome. drinking plain water spiked with MSM and himalayan crystal salt while i teach is going to make a big difference. i can feel that. i hadn't been drinking plain water for a long time, just lemonade and tea. my tea is unsmoked yerba mate, which has a compound in it called "mateine," not caffeine. it's one of the highest levels of antioxidants in a tea, much higher than green tea, and mateine, while somewhat stimulating, doesn't have the dehydrating and depleting effects of caffeine. yerba mate is one of those foods that i just tried once and knew it was my food. i cold-brew it in my quart jar with room temp water and agave nectar. in the winter, i like it warm and blended with hempseeds and agave so it's a mate-latte. it makes me happy.

i still haven't been able to post my pictures (could be the universe protecting everyone), but we're working on getting them to me in a format i can actually use.

the other big accomplishment for the week thus far is that i have somehow refrained from spending any more money. i went to Whole Foods on sunday, before i realized that i had overdrawn my bank account, and bought enough food to last me through the week. but when has that ever stopped me from buying more? after the realization of the overdraft, i have been disciplining myself to eat only what i have, and it's working really well. i'll finish up all of my food tonight, and my paycheck hits my account tonight. that's just right. on the rawfu chat, there is a discussion thread about eating Raw on a budget, and starting tomorrow, when i go shopping again, i'm going to make that a big focus of my own efforts. eating Raw is one of those things that can be as gourmet and expensive as you want it to be, or it can actually be way, way cheaper than cooked food. cheap cooked food has basically no nutrient value, whereas cheap raw food is loaded. i mean, what's cheaper than a cabbage? and more full of nutrients? people have been thriving on cabbage for centuries. i wish i knew how to make kimchee - i've tried and failed spectacularly! but i'm willing to try again, because i think that salted cabbage is one of the most important human foods. my mom eats more cabbage than anyone else i've ever known. if you visit my parents, you'll have some sort of slaw at least 3 times in a week for dinner, plus the leftovers for lunch. i need to pick up on that habit again, once i'm back to eating salads this fall. the problem with cabbage in smoothies and juices is that the high sulphur content causes it to RRRRREEEEEEEK! in no time. of course, the high sulphur content is one of the things that makes it so valuable. sulphur's really good for your skin, and i gotta say that my mom has got the best skin of a 65+ omnivore i've seen. so eat your cabbage!

oh yeah, so no salads till fall. i'm blending my greens exclusively until my digestion has gotten stronger and my HCL levels have gone up. read Green for Life.

boldly going on to Day Five! woo-hoo!