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.

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.

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? 

End of Summer update

It seems like this summer went so quickly! This morning I got up early and headed out to the farmers market. The onky thing on my lisg was organic blueberries.  No luck. For some reason, this weeks market was terrible!  Nothing but carrots and potaoes.  Also there were fewer farmers this week. Those that were, weren't organic.  I decided to drive over to the farm to buy the blueberries direct, but turns out their season is over and they were closed.  But that wasn't going to stop me!  So I drove to the roadside berries stands close to me, but they were also closed.  On my 5th stop I finally found some, not organic, but that this point, I didn't think I could be picky.  Guess it's nothing but potatoes and turnips until spring. Bleh.

This summer was very busy, I got so busy doing things that I totally went off my routine.  I hardly hiked at all.  But now that Sarah is back in Hong Kong, I am back on track. No more hawkin's cheezies.   No more thinking about Me 'n Ed's pizza. (I'm still working on that one.)  Not that it was Sarah's fault, she just got me busy doing other fun things. Almost a year ago I made a goal for myself that is probably impossible.  I wanted to wear a bikini when I go to Hong Kong at the end of Oct.  At this point, I'd have to develop annorexia to make that happen.  Maybe next year.  A couple weeks ago I was 4 pounds from my "realistic" goal.  However that was before a rather indulgant campjng trip that was the caloric undoing of many a Friesen.  So now that I'm zeroing in on the realistic goal, I need to set myself a new numeric goal.  I'm thinking of setting 5 pound goals since weightloss seems to be slowing.  Seems reasonable.

The other day, it dawned on me one major advantage of living and working here.  This will be the first time in 3 years that I won't be commuting in the winter.  For that alone, I have decided to stay put until the spring.   And then who knows? I had briefly thought of moving closer to the centre of town becuase my landlord was pushing me to pay more rent.  I think I have held her off for now.  The cost of moving would have been greater in the long run than just paying more rent. I'm sure at some point she'll broach the subject again.

In other news, I have just purchased a bluetooth keyboard for my tablet that will make it sooooo much easier to type. I love my tablet, and think it was a smart purchase, but the touch screen keyboard is not ideal for blogging.  Everyother word has a typo.  Once the keyboard arrives , I'll do a photo update.  If you are thinking of buying a laptop, let me persuade you to buy a tablet instead.  It's like combining your laptop, with your ebook reader, with your phone (apps and games) with your tv (controls your tv and sends images from the tablet to your tv). I was a firm supporter of laptops, now I would not go back. The only thing I wish it could do is connect my iphone to the tablet and send information between the two of them.