The longest I’ve ever fasted is 3 days. They say that the second day is the hardest and I think it’s true; if you can make it past the third you’re good to go. Why don’t you just throw the almond pulp in your smoothie? You can even cut down on whatever nuts you were putting in to compensate.

Today I got some good reinforcement because I was working on the curriculum for Lessons for Healthy Living and watching DVD #4, Making the Change, and editing the section on Diseases and Fasting. I’m taking advantage of having half my family away to push full steam ahead on the curriculum for at least until Wednesday night–ignoring everything else (except the garden when I really have to harvest something). I’m not tempted to put some of that cabbage on the dehydrator tray in my mouth, but boy those tomatoes sure look delicious!

Kim, I do freeze the almond pulp until I collect enough to dehydrate and then I grind it to a powder for storage. Once in awhile I use some in a smoothie or something but I need more almond-flour-based recipes, or I am going to have enough almond flour to live on in the trib! Not that that would be a bad thing…but I will need recipes for then, too. lol

Well, back to the cabbage…

Connie

Hi Paula- I definitely think that doing this together as a group is key. I’ll be posting on the blog, and the FamilyNatural Facebook page will be the best place for daily interactions and cheering each other on. If you haven’t gone there, go and click the “like” button. Then you’ll be notified of any thing I post. Glad you’re joining in!

Connie- Good for you for being specific. It makes a big difference in your follow through. As far as drinking water, it means drinking ONLY WATER. Tea is not water. Water needs to be 1/2 your body weight in ounces per day. If you still have stomach room and time in your day for other drinks, I recommend only herbal (naturally decaffeinated) tea. Not black tea which has caffeine. And any kind of smoothie is not a drink, it is a meal. As far as MSG, you are right-no boullion. I have a post on making chicken broth. It’s easy and delicious. I’ll be experimenting with veggie broth soon. Almond pulp: Put it in the freezer and collect it. Then add it to pancake batter, granola, throw it in smoothies. And, Go you on the raw! I am trying to get there myself.

Hi Lisa- picking something specific to stick to is the key, and babysteps do indeed make it doable.

I do think that drinking the proper amount of water is the most important place to start if you’re not already doing it. And water means ONLY water, NOT tea. If you want to drink some kind of flavored tea-drink in addition to the proper amount of water, I think that herbal teas (naturally decaffeinated) are fine, sweetened only with stevia or possibly some raw honey. The truth is that after you drink enough water, you don’t have much time in the day or stomach room for anything else! LOL.

I’ve been on and off about #1, so I’ll start there! I am curious about teas, what you think of them.

My husband is a meat-and-potatoes kinda guy, I’m guessing I would never do all 7, but I”m doing a few of these things 80%… this could help jack me up that extra 20%

THANKS!

1) I’ve been drinking only water and tea (no soda, no coffee). Do fruit or green smoothies count? I don’t think so–so I’ll commit to cutting out the tea.

2) I’ve been avoiding MSG like the plague–which it is, duh–and have always avoided artificial sweeteners and lately stopped buying corn syrup–but I will be more careful about things I use to cook with. Hmmm, I guess that means no chicken or beef bouillon, or gravy mix?

3) I gave up white bread eons ago, white rice a few years ago, and white pasta a few months ago–but am still tempted because we do still have some in the house. I am having a tough time getting used to the whole wheat pasta… I will commit to making sure I cook no white stuff for the next 3 weeks.

4) I have tried to cut my family’s meat consumption back a few times, but it keeps sneaking back up. Since my daughter is away for 3 weeks and hubby works a couple evenings a week and will be away at conference for a few days, it should be easy to at least stop my own meat consumption for 3 weeks. Okay, I’ll commit to that.

5) We cut out dairy products several years ago and my daughter’s health and my own improved considerably (wrote about that on my website). We switched to soy milk and had a dilly of a time finding one that we “liked.” I’ve been making almond milk for a few months and my husband and son are enjoying it. (Could use some good recipes for using the almond pulp, though!) But we’ve been backsliding and buying cheddar cheese and ice cream lately. I’ll commit to cutting out the cheese and ice cream for 3 weeks.

6) No processed sugar, no problem. Just have to ignore any treats our son might happen to bake for the rest of the month…

7) No animal products–well, if I’m cutting out meat and dairy products already, looks like I’m already there!

8) No cooked food–I managed a few months ago to go 4 weeks eating totally raw and I felt so much better that I’ve been wanting to do it again. So here I go–I’ll commit to 3 weeks raw (after tonight, because I have steaks thawing for tonight’s supper). And I’ll have to stop with the potato chips…

Thanks for the push. I’ve been needing this…

Connie