Day three no poo

Update, it's the end of day three of the no shampoo experiment.  So far, so good.  My hair feels great, I notice my bangs are slightly greasy at the end of the day.  Nothing too excessive, but my hair tends to be a bit dry, not oily. I don't really smell anything, I smell a bit of vinegar and the essential oils when my hair is wet.  Once it's dry, I can't smell the vinegar, so that's good. I think I'll stick with it for now.

No Poo Experiment

No, not that kind of poo.  No shampoo!

About 8 months ago I first heard about people who stopped using shampoo and conditioner. Not crazy looking homeless people, but normal people.  Around that time I started to using Dr. Bronner's soap as a shampoo.  That lasted maybe a week, it made my hair feel awful, like straw. I think it was just to drying for me, although other people rave about it. I still love Bronner's as a body wash or cleaner, just not as a shampoo.  I went back to normal shampoo and conditioner for the last several months.

Lately I keep coming across blogs, youtube videos and pages on Pinterest about going poo free.  I did a bit more reading, and it seeemed doable.  You might be wondering why would I want to stop using shampoo and conditioner anyways?  Well it seems silly that I eat as organic as I can etc etc, but then put crazy chemicals on my head everyday.  I probably wouldn't have even thought of it, but I have to read the ingredient labels on my hair products because wheat is often added as an ingredient.  It got me thinking that shampoo and conditioner are chemical bombs. 

When I first looked into no poo, I came across a vlogger that only used water, nothing else.  That just seemed crazy.  Wouldn't your head start to smell?  Isn't that how you grow dreadlocks?  Then I came across bloggers that used vinegar and baking soda.  This instantly brought to my mind images of vinegar and baking soda volcanoes.   Turns out, you don't mix the two.  She recommended diluted baking soda for the scalp to degrease and diluted vinegar as a rinse.  Hmmm, is that going to make me smell like vinegar? A few blogs later I read that you can add essential oils to the vinegar/water solution to smell yummy... and I was sold.

Now silly me, I have heaps of shampoo and conditioner on hand.  But no time like the present! I am home sick today anyways, so might as well do a test run.  I thought my hair would be impossible to comb through like the Bronner's experiment,  but my hair brushed through as though I had used Pantene.  Feels, soft and clean, with a hint of vinegar scent-guess I didn't rinse well enough.  I think it also brightened up the red hair dye, but it could also be my imagination.  I'll keep going with this for a bit and see how it goes. Apparently it takes a while for your scalp to adjust, it will produce too much oil for the first couple of weeks before the glands adjust.  Stay tuned... 

If you are intersted in learning more, follow my 80-10-10 board on Pinterest or see this blog http://www.livingthelifefantastic.com/2013/01/shampoo-free-faq/

Yarrow

Came across a field of yarrow.  There were so many bees that I could hear the buzz over the music in my headphones.  

It's a fantastic garden so far this year.  

Deluded self confidence

I have come to the conclusion that men think that they are better than they really are and women think they are worse than they really are.  Online dating has taught me this.  This guy is the proof.  This guy has emailed me three times telling me how "beautiful slender is" and how we would be "harmonious together."  He is looking for an active, health conscious, fit, beautiful woman.  Seriously?  I'm paying for this service?  

It was the couch in the background that really pushed me over the edge.  I wished him well on his search, but I wasn't interested.  I also promptly made some changes to my profile.  

Like 1997

Yesterday I had a great day.  I did a bit of casual househunting in the sun, cruised around the old neighbourhood,  had lunch with a friend and stocked up on things I can only get at Choice's market and Galloway's.  While at Choice's, I saw a guy I went to high school with.  He looked exactly the same.  In high school he looked like Tom Delong of blink182, and had the same late 90's skater style.  In high school this style and his resemblance to a rock star made him "hot".  He was still sporting the same style right down to his skater shoes.  I was lost in thought wondering why people get stuck in an era, and wondering if I'm stuck in an era without realizing it.  I was also thinking of all the bands I loved in the late 90's.  Smashing Pumpkins,  blink, No Doubt, Nirvana, System of a Down, STP, Soundgarden, Radiohead.  If I didn't know him, I would have thought he was maybe 20 years old.  Still cute, although stuck in the time warp, he probably still listened to 90's music on a walkman.  He was in front of me in the checkout, chatting with the cashier.  They were talking about the Save On Foods at Metrotown that closed.  His response was how sad it is that all the grocery stores for white people are closing.

What?...did he really just say that?  Clearly he is also mentally stuck in the segregation of the 1950's.  So not hot.

A weighty subject

Hi, I know it's been a while.  I just haven't been interested in sharing my life with the web- or anyone really.  But rest assured, I'm doing really well.   So I'm pretty sure I mentioned on the blog before that I didn't own a scale and would weigh myself at Superstore every once in a while.  The store seemed to not like people using the bathroom scales in store and not bying them, so they discontinued the model that you could try out while it was still in the package.  So I hadn't weighed myself since Thailand, I couldn't justify spending $40-50 on something that was going to tell me things I didn't want to know!

A few weeks ago the Walmart super-centre opened up across the street.  Now maybe this is a little bit of lame, but on a rainy day, it's not a bad place to go for a walk.  It's so big, I can get a 1 hour walk in without even realizing it.  Last week I noticed their scales were only $8, what a deal!  So I brought it home, hopped on and was delighted to see I was another 7 pounds down from my Thailand weigh in.  I moved it from the hallway into my bedroom and went on with my day.  The next day I hopped on and I was 25 pounds heavier.  It was a dark day.  25 pounds over night? Was it PMS water weight? Had I really endulged that much at Shabusen?  All my clothes were fitting as before, I kept scutinizing myself in the mirror, where exactly is this 25 pounds?  For the next 5 days I weighed myself a couple times a day, and did a 5 day cleanse.  The results?  None!  This morning in disgust, I moved my bathroom scale out of my room where it mocks me while I get ready for the day, and moved it to the hallway.  I planned to take it to the storage locker on my way out.  Afterall, if it was going to be that sort of a bastard, it wasn't welcome in my house anymore. 

Like the truly obsessed person I am, I hopped on the scale again even though I had weighed myself less than 5 minutes before.  So stupid, how could I possibly lose any weight in 5 minutes....?  Magically I had lost 25 pounds in 5 minutes.  All is right in the world!  I moved the scale back on to the carpet, and weighed again, up 25 pounds!  Why?  I don't know.  

Dr Bronner's soap

A product review!

Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap.  It's vegan, natural, fair trade, cruelty free etc etc and strangely a multi-use product.  It can be used as a shampoo, bodywash and household cleaner.  I'm using as a bodywash and shampoo, I'm sort of confused about the household cleaner bit, but I guess soap is soap.  I'm very loyal to pantene, but the ingredient list is all chemicals.  Plus pantene is made by proctor&gamble who tests products on animals.  I'd been thinking whats the point in eating so healthy if all my makeup, lotion, hair products are all bad for me?  I switched to coconut oil for my moisturizer and switched to a natural toothpaste  and both of those products are great, I dont want to switch back.  On recommendation, I thought I would try Dr. Bronner's soap.  It's really pepperminty, I love the scent.  The downside?   It kinda leaves something like a soap residue, my hair doesn't feel all that great until I put conditioner on. Actually, my hair feels like shit until I put conditioner on.  After a couple days I noticed my hair was a little greasy.  I'm not decided on whether I like it or not.  Maybe it just takes some getting used to?  I love it as a bodywash.  You can actually feel the tingly peppermint for like an hour afterwards. At about $10 a bottle, it's not cheap, but a little goes a long way.  I give it 3.5 bananas out of 5

Craigslist

For Hire: well dressed professional criers to mourn the death of a certain someone who was not completely adored in life. Professional mourner will deliver eulogy for an extra fee. Fee nagotiable, travel expenses may apply.

For real. 

This ad I spotted on craigslist and I'm torn between thinking it's a creative way to make a living, and thinking this person must be nuts.  Or at least poor at spelling and grammar.  I'm watching a documentary on Netflix (courtesy of Whitney) about a guy who lived off the generosity of strangers for one month by posting ads on craigslist.  While watching I perused the bits of craigslist that I don't usually look at.  Im resistant to post things on craigslist because I worry a serial murderer will hack me into little bits.  But that's a silly thought isn't it.  Given the number of murderers I've gotten to know, you'd think that this thought wouldn't enter my mind anymore.  Maybe I just like to know what people are capable of in advance.  Incidentally I have a 32 inch flat screen tv up for grabs.  It's not one of those thin tv's.  It a big heavy son of a hippopotamus.  If you promise not to hack me into bits, it's all yours.

On another craigslist note.  I periodically check the missed connections section.  A typical post will read something along the lines of "I saw you walking your pomeranian on Robson, we chatted about Venice beach.  You were wearing cheetahs leggings, I was wearing an orange vest.  Send me a message if you want to have coffee".  Entertaining and often totally deluded.  I would cut through the BS posts by filtering for something I felt was a good descriptor of me, blonde.  I just realized blonde no longer describes me.  Now I'm a red head, I guess I'll have to change my descriptor.  Obviously I would never respond to such an crazy internet post, I just think the posts are entertaining.  Every once in a while I will recognize someone from the description (a co-worker or a cashier at the IGA)

The best thing I have ever made

http://www.choosingraw.com/raw-spinach-burgers/comment-page-1/#comment-88208

When I was in Hong Kong, I ate out at a raw restaurant.  I was disappointed, for being just veggies it sure was a heavy meal.  I ordered a raw vegan burger and fries with high expectations.  I could only eat about half of it, and I had the sinking feeling I had unknowingly just ate 2000 calories.  At least that's the criticism I hear about raw food restaurants- disregard for calories in favor of making raw food exciting for non-raw people.  Today I was thinking it would be nice if I could revamp that meal.  I was already dehydrating stuff, so I started hunting for recipes.  I found the website above, it's totally new to me, but I have now bookmarked it as a favorite.  The food isn't all raw, so I thought I would share.

So the raw burger recipe is pretty simple, pulp from the juicer, spices and nuts, pulverized in the food processor and then dehydrated for 8 hours or so.  The recipe calls for spinach pulp, but I didn't have that.  I juiced parsley, cilantro and carrots and then used walnuts instead of sunflower seeds.  I had to cut the recipe in half because I didn't have enough pulp, and now I'm wishing I'd doubled it. 

For now I'm dehydrating by putting my oven on the lowest temperature (170) which is too hot.  I'm looking forward to buying a proper dehydrator in the January sales, even with the sales it's going to be an investment.  I'm also toying with the idea of buying a used video camera and starting my own youtube channel.  I knew that the channels I watched were somehow making money with every view, but I didn't really know how or how much.  The blog The Simple Dollar recently spelled it all out and the math was pretty surprising.  I'm tempted to give it a shot.  I'm thinking of posting videos of my smoothies, juices and raw food stuff and make a bit of extra banana money on the side.  I think I'd need to clear it with 'the work' first.

Just like I'm 10 years old

Hi!

I just called in sick, it sucks, but you all benefit from an unscheduled blog post. 

So on the "diet" front, I stuck pretty close to the 80/10/10 low fat fruitarian way of eating since vacation.  (Side note- while on vacation I hit my realistic weight goal.  My unrealistic weight goal remains not even in sight).  At first I struggled with hummus withdrawal, but once over the hump, I found most days I was actually eating around 5% fat when I could have been eating roughly double that.  But then I also have had a few days totally off plan.  I had a couple of days when I ate a lot of rice because the fruits and veg in town were awful or too expensive.  Since then my stomach has been really upset.  I figured it was sushi sickness- the sickness my sisters experience immediately after eating rice. I thought if I went back to my usual diet, it would go away, but it didn't.  It was also about this time that I ate fruit at my staff breakfast party.  It dawned on me this morning, that maybe my real issue is that I got glutened from that breakfast.   I haven't been glutened in more than a year, I had a good run.

This morning I was getting out of my pj's and into some comfy I'm-staying-home sick-clothes.  I recently went through all my clothes and got rid of a bunch of clothes that were too big.  I also found some new clothes that I had never worn or had forgotten about.  Today I'm wearing a Camp Olave t-shirt that I got when I was a Brownie.  I think I was 9 or 10 years old when I got it.  I always liked it and now I'm really glad I kept it.  I didn't ever think I'd be able to wear it again though!  Thrilling. 

Note to self, figure out how to undo the "take a crappy picture" setting on your iPhone.

Bad customer service from Shaw Cable

This was going to be an angry, ranting post about my hatred of Shaw cable.  I'm over it now (okay, not totally over it).

Earlier this week my internet/cable promotion ran out, and I was offered a better deal by telus.  I had tried to make arrangements almost a month ago to end my service, but was talked out of it  by the phone reps.  I was told I didnt need to do anything until the day my promo ended and I would be billed for 2 additional days.  Long story short, 3 different phone reps gave me wrong information, which has landed me with a bill for over $100 for internet and 6 days worth of cable.  I was angry that had I done as I originally wanted, I would have owed a lot less.  I called in to complain, and got a really argumentative woman who at first wouldn't let me speak to a supervisor until I finally insisted.  The supervisor was not helpful either.  I was really surprised that he would not honour what the previous employees had told me.  Instead he insisted I was wrong.

My original plan was to switch to the competitor for a couple of months until Shaw offered me another promotion to return.  I had never had any sort of problems with Shaw up until now.  I had been with them since 1998, and expected them to apologise for the confusion, and make it right.  Instead I am a disgruntled customer who will not return.  I was going to file a formal complaint with the commissioner for telecommunications and the BBB, but I decided it wasn't worth the mental anguish.  Shaw cable is rated "F" with the BBB, so I assume they have no interest in responding to the complaints they receive.  And really, it's not about the money, I just wanted an apology, I didn't want to be told I was a liar. 

Shaw cable, you have won the award for the worst customer service I have received in my entire life.  Chester, supervisor at Shaw cable, I will not be sending you a Christmas present, and from now on my code word for asshole will be Chester.  "Stop being such a Chester"  "He looks like a real Chester".  It works, don't you think?

It's all her fault

Yeah, I know it's been too long between posts, and I have other things I could be blogging about.  I just haven't been into blogging. 

The picture seems a strange assortment of things.  They all things that my cat has broken or stolen in the last couple of days.  Feathers and a match stick she found... somewhere and brought inside.  Maybe on my balcony?  She broke the bell that they ring to go out on the balcony.  She ripped off the jewel from Ella's latest artwork.  She chewed in half my latest piece of jewellery.  It was piece of coral that I found in Thailand and wrapped in silver wire to make it into a pendant.  I just finished making it yesterday, and was really happy with it.  And finally, she found where the baseboard was loose in a closet, and took it.  It took me a while to figure out where it came from.  I've put it back a few times, but she just goes back and gets it again.  If cats were able to be in search and rescue, she'd be great at it.

All these little things that she finds are gifts I guess?  It made me remember when I was 3 or 4 putting on my snow boots only to find the cat had put a dead mouse inside.  I guess if she can't hunt mice, she''ll hunt for loose baseboards and match sticks.

And just like that....

I'm so done.  I know just yesterday I was planning to stay on the liquids only for longer, but it wasn't meant to be. The change in weather was a total bummer. I stayed close to home researching places to go for my vacation.  This included restaurants.  In retrospect, looking at food having not eaten in 8 days was probably not my best bet.  This morning I made my morning smoothie, took one sip and knew I was done.

Overall, I feel pretty good about lasting so long.  I'll probably do it again.    Today I went to the grocery store for one thing, instead I loaded up my cart. After a few words with myself I put a bunch of stuff back and got the hell outta there.

day 7

Yes. It's already day seven.  The last thing I ate was a banana 7 days ago.  That sounds crazy. I seriously cannot believe I made it so far, and that it was so easy.  If it weren't for my upcoming trip to Hong Kong, I think I would stay on the liquids for longer.  I feel great overall.  I had one scary moment when I hadn't drank very much because I got busy at work.  I realized I wasn't feeling right, and then I realized I was going to faint.  Lucky for me I didn't, and 5 minutes after I drank some juice I was fine.  My plan has been to do about another week before I start transitioning back to food.  Maybe that'll change.


Now I'm looking up what my food options are while I travel.  I have never travelled internationally while juggling my dietary restrictions.  It was on my last trip to Hong Kong that I felt so ill that I finally realized that I really truly had a problem with gluten.  The thought of trying to explain gluten to a waiter can be hard enough at home, let alone overseas.  Reading packages for ingredients could also be a challenge.  I'm telling you, sticking with plain ole fruits and veg is so much more simple.  However, one pretty big downside is that I will completly miss out on the local foods.  Is real pad thai in Thailand worth the risk of getting sick?

Here we are day three!

Yes, it's day three already.  I'm doing a liquids only cleanse.  Fresh juices, smoothies, water, tea and coffee.  Technically, coffee should not be included, but I decided that since I'm already doing a modified cleanse, I would be a little more flexible.  Since I have no intention of giving up coffee,why go through the caffeine withdrawals?  A more traditional cleanse would be juice and water only.  For me, that's too hardcore, and I don't think I'd be able to maintain that.

What's the point?  Why am I doing this?  Basically, juices and smoothies are clean (no fats, no processed junk) and all blended up, so the body can digest it really fast, and with less energy.  It takes a lot of energy to breakdown food, especially meat.  A big percentage of the smoothies and juices are absorbed at the first part of the intestines.  A small amount still goes through the intestinal track.  With nothing really coming in, the intestines can clear out anything that has been hanging around.  The end result should be more efficient digestion and better absorption of nutrients.  Plus a little weight loss as the body uses up fat stores to compensate for the low fat intake.  And, I just wanted to see if I could do it.  And I was struggling with the 80/10/10 fat intake, this should make it easier to stick to since my current carb/protein/fat ratio is about 90/5/5.

I'll be honest, I had my doubts that I would have the will power to last 24 hours. I thought I would cave in and gorge on hummus by the end of the day.  During the day has been easy, the evenings are always my biggest challenge.  I usually crave fat at night.  But last night it was popcorn.  Instead I had a banana, date, spinach smoothie with a splash of almond milk and about a cup of coconut water to get it blending.  That did the trick.  It sounds disgusting, but I swear you cannot taste the spinach at all, and there was 2 or 3 cups of it.  It tastes like.... caramel and bananas.  I also had a bit of tummy upset over the last 2 days, but that's to be expected on a cleanse.  I think it was caused by a pumpkin smoothie, as soon as I drank it, it did not sit well.  Bad food  combining?  Typically, day three is the most difficulty day and if you can make it to day four, it's all gravy.  I started the day off feeling great, so I'm hopeful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Friday night was Thanksgiving dinner.  Over and done with.  I gotta say, holiday dinners have lost their appeal for me.  I think I use to associate those sorts of dinners with eating a lot and eating foods that were a treat.  It's been a long time since I've eatten most of those treats, not so much because of the raw vegan diet, but more because of having to eat gluten free.  Like Nanaimo bars, butter tarts and stuffing, those were my favorites.  The vast majority of treats I really used to love, I can't have anymore or their gluten free substitues just aren't that great.  As I was watching people load up their second helpings, I was remembering myself eating like that, and how sick I used feel afterwards.  Not only from he gluten, but also just from the quantity.  I guess I'm thankful that I don't tend to binge anymore. 

Last night also marked something.  It marked the last time I will be wearing my skinny dress pants.  I have worn them a lot in the last week or two because I knew the end was near.  Last year I stopped wearing them because they were too tight.  Now I won't be wearing them again because they are too big.  I contemplated moving the buttons over, but the legs and butt are too baggy.  So good bye 14, 13, 12 and 11.  Hello size 10.

The rest of the day is spent doing things around the house, I have started making Christmas presents.  I have got some good ones that I have made for myself first and given a good test run.  I have had a busy couple of weeks because I have taken a lot of new things on.  I have enrolled with a mentor at work, and have been accepted for a pilot project at work, I joined a women's wellness coffee discussion group and started physio twice a week in addition to massage therapy.  The end result has been that I have something going on after work nearly every day of the week, so this weekend I'm catching up on some things at home.

This morning I realized that sometime in the last few weeks was my one year anniversary of being raw.  It started out as just a trial, and I felt so good, I saw no reason to stop.  It was so simple, and I thought it would be super difficult.  I have been thinking about doing a juice/smoothie cleanse for a bit.  While I was toying with the idea, I was watching youtube videos of the people I follow.  I was a few days behind, so I had a bit of catching up to do.  Turns out today is the start of a juice/smoothie cleanse.  Seems serendipidous, so I have decided to join.  I have no real goal for how long I'll be on the cleanse, the online cleanse is for 30 days, but I know that I have to stop about a week before I leave on vacation.  So at most 2 weeks.  But I may have no will power and will stop long before that.  Wish me luck, if I stick with it, I'll blog about it.

Microwave baking

Yes, that's right, microwave baking.  It may sound like a throw back to 1989, but it's not. 

I had some egg whites in the fridge, from a moment of weakness involving pancakes.  Rather than throwing them out, I thought I would try out a receipe that I saw on a blog.  Microwave Protein Muffins.  I could have sworn the receipe called for protein powder. A side from using up the eggs, I was also looking forward to using up some of my insane protein powder stash.  I found one brand that I LOVE, and have 3 or 4 other brands that I need to try to use up.

I put in all the ingredients, and then thought.... "where the heck's the protein powder go in?"  Yeah, it doesn't, I didn't read it properly.  Oh well, I threw a good scoop in for extra measure (and flavour).  Microwaved on high for about 4 minutes and it was done.  I admit I was a lot worried when I saw it rising up out of the bowl.  I'm a gluten-free girl afterall, and I haven't seen that sort of rising action in about 4 years.   I guess it's normal...?  After letting it cool, I was all ready to give it a taste.  In a word... EGGEY.  I guess this is what a souffle would taste like. Not that I've ever had one.  I didn't care for how eggey it was since I don't really like eggs. I decided to whip up a quick emergency chocolate sauce from hot chocolate powder (left over from camping).  With a good dose of chocolate, it was pretty good!  I can think of other ways to improve this "muffin."  I might try it again, as I still have egg whites left.

If you're curious, the ingredients were: 1/2 cup egg whites, 1/4 cup pumpkin, 1/2 tsp baking powder, a dollop of honey, 2tbs of flour, 1 tbs of protein powder.  You are also supposed to add cocoa powder, but I didn't have any, I substituted for chocolate protein powder.  Mix and microwave until it isn't liquidy, and it seems more solid, and not much steam is billowing out of it while nuking.

Okay, back to vegan, 10% fat and carrots tomorrow.  34 days until vacation!

New keyboard!

So exciting, I've had it for about a week, and I realized that I hadn't blogged at all.  Blogging was the whole reason for buying the keyboard.  So here we are.  I feel like this last week has been rough, I started off the week with a ton of plans, and they all went to shit by the middle of the week.  For some unknown reason my neck has suddenly become a lot worse just when my thereapy was almost finished.  I actually hurt as much as just after the car accident.  Luckily, I have been approved for more therapy, so for the next little bit I'm doing weekly massage therapy and physio.  Hopefully it's going to help.  Finishing my day with tylenol, a drink and a 8:30 bedtime is not a pattern I want to keep for myself.

The original plan for the week was yoga twice a week, and participating in a meetup group.  The week started great, I went to the group for the first time.  Despite beng the youngest person there, I really liked the vibe of the women.  I'm looking forward to going again this week.  Every woman in the group is working towards a goal, and they share what is working for them and what their next steps are.  So the members of the group get support, encouragement and ideas for how to get to the next step- whatever that step is.  Since a good chunk of my goals of late centre around working through my anxiety, the group is just perfect for me.  But my neck was hurting too bad to follow through with the rest of the plan.  Maybe this week.  It's very frustratng that I can't do things because of this neck injury.  However, I have concurred 3 challenges this week, so it wasn't a total bust.   I forced myself to drive at night, I met a large group of total strangers and I took an exit that I was totally afraid of.  Might seem like little things, but for me that's huge.

I got another ergo assessment at work, in hopes that it will also help with the neck pain.  It's too soon to tell, but I'm thinking it should help, since the pain gets worse the further into the workweek.  This weekends goal was to find clearout summer clothes for my upcomming vacation.  I didn't give it too much thought, it's still mid 20's everyday of the week, and it's still shorts weather.  But it is almost October and all the stores have changed their seasons.  I couldn't find anything!  I needed to find something as the 80/10/10 diet shift has made some changes to my tummy and thighs in a rather spectacular way.  This was starting to stress me out, along with the neck pain, I was feeling pretty down. I went off the diet plan a little bit for the weekend, and treated myself at the spa.  I got my nails done, it's been years since I last had nice long nails.  My afternoon at the spa and the extra fatty diet did lift my spirits. I managed to find a few clothes at the thrift store and watched movies while I moved the buttons on my shorts for the second time this summer.  Last year I moved all the buttons out, earlier this summer I moved all the buttons back to where they started, and now they are further in.  I'm not sure I've ever moved buttons in! 

**Dear Blogger, why is there no spell check for this app?  Sorry readers, you'll just have to suffer with my poor spelling abilities.

Getting down to it.

Tickets are booked! In roughly 40 days I'll be on vacation.  About a year ago when I went raw, I thought it would be nice if I could be in shape enough to wear a bikini.  Don't we all think that?  I'm a long way from that being a reality, but it is still the dream.  I've noticed that I've hit a plateau, maybe because I haven't been working out as often.  Or maybe it was the cheezies.  So now it's the big push to the finish line. I had thought about doing a juice feast (not eating, just drinking a ton of fresh juices) but the thought of cleaning my juicer multiple times a day, and peeing 20 times a day just isn't speaking to me.  If I'm not pumped at the start, I won't last long.  So instead I'm going to try a different version of the raw vegan diet, maybe it'll give my body the jolt it needs.

I'm going to try following a fruitarian diet for a while and see how it goes.  The name is deceiving, fruitarians eat fruits, veg, nuts and seeds, just like other raw vegans. It's just the proportions that make the difference.  The goal is to get 80% of calories from carbs (fruit) 10% from protein and 10% from fat.  I have been doing a modified version of this for a while now.  But today I calculated it. I've been doing 60/20/20.  To compare, a standard American diet is 50% carbs, 35% fat and 15 % protein.  It doesn't sound like I'm that far off, and by American standards I eat a low fat diet.  But upping my carbs by 20% and reducing fat and protein by 10% is really hard!  100 calories of nuts is like 1/4 cup, and 100 calories of watermelon is almost 3 cups.  Eat more to lose more?  Let's see. My morning coffee with soy milk, takes up 1/4 of my fat intake for the day.  My coffee!  16 grams of fat a day is the goal. Can I do it? Who knows, I didn't think I could make the switch to vegan, and it turned out to be a breeze.

If you are worried, it's too little fat, don't worry.  My inner thighs will be able to supply my body with enough fat for a long while :-) Plus in 40 days I'll be falling off the bandwagon.

Maybe?

I've always known that I would go back to school eventually. I like learning, and I really like researching.  With labour day a few days away, I can't help but think of my own plans to go back to school.  I don't plan on going back to school until my student loans are paid.  In the meantime, I've been looking at my options.  The government will pay a portion of my tuition if I do a program that would lead to another government job that is in demand.  I've been researching different options for a while.  The leading contenders were social work (either psychiatric or geriatric) or clinical counselling which would put me into corrections.  But I think maybe neither woukd be very fulfuilling in the end.  No one complains like a social worker.  Maybe it's too much pressure, and not enough resources?  I think I lack the grades to make counsellor happen, and I think I lack some key qualities that are needed to make a good counsellor.  Plus I dislike how mentally ill people are treated in general.  Maybe I should stay where I am and learn about someyhing that interests me more.

I'm thinking of learning something completely different.  I have always been drawn to the medical side of things.  There was a time that I wanted to be a paramedic.  However I didn't have my drivers licence, so I went to psychology instead.  Now I think I would find the job too traumatic.  I thought breifly of nursing, but the shift work and the thought of ass wiping quickly made me change my mind.  Plus having worked in pharmacy, I learned how stupid it is to take 90% of of the drugs perscribed, most don't ever heal, they just cover up the symptoms.  People would rather take a pill, than change their lifestyle that caused the problem in the first place.  This frustrated me in the past, so I knew I needed to look in a less traditional medical field.

First this lead me naturopathy, which is a 4 year full time program similar in difficulty to med school.  No thanks, I'm too lazy for that.  Colon hydrotherapy? Too many bums.  Chinese medicine? Same level of difficulty as naturopath.  Accupuncture? Not intereted.  Massage therapy?  Maybe.   Life coach (as suggested by Judy)- I think I'm too young.  Then I thought of homeopathy. The program takes 4 years, but is on the weekends, 11 weeks of the year.  Pretty doable schedule.  The last 2 years are in clinic practicums perscribing herbal, and mineral remedies.  I'm thinking this would be good because I could work as a homeopath part time (while still keeping my other job).  There is the potential to work online through skype doing consultations and or an online store selling the herbal remedies.  Or working in a wellness clinic (there are a few around).  I've been wanting to do a type of work that I could do anywhere in the world.  I think this might fit that bill.  Full time homeopaths make somewhere around $70,000- $80,000 a year, not that I would work full time. 

The drawbacks?  Homeopathy is currently an unregulated practice in Canada, but is moving towards accreditation (it's more mainstream in Europe).  It's not eligible for student loans, and my employer will not help me with this.  The tuition is about $5000 a year.  It's slightly kookie.  Although it's less kookie than animal psychic, or alien transportation specialist. I'm also looking into a few other options, but I'm welcome to suggestions too!

What do you think? Could you see me doing this?