Update, It's been a while...

Wow, seems like so much time has past since I began my blog,

And somehow life has been running from me, and I'm struggling to keep up.

It terms of my diet, a lot has changed. The first, most major symptom, I have stopped gaining weight!

And, I have stopped weighing myself. But hang on, how can you tell that you have stopped gaining weight then? I can just tell, all my clothes still fit and I am eating more abundantly then ever! And I can feel that things are starting to even themselves out, my skin is clearing, I don't suffer from night sweats on any sort of sweating, I energy (for the most part) and I am just thriving.

Also, my boyfriend has cut meat and dairy out of his diet. Wowzers, this has come from the man who has lived, and I truly mean LIVED, for steak and a big ol' glass of milk (not at the same time, of course.) for all his life. Until now. So what changed?

We watched Earthlings. If you don't know what Earthlings is, then please, search it up on youtube, it will change your life. I know it did for me.

The most evident thing that has changed is my mind set. When I started this blog, I did it in the hope that I would find the day, (hopefully sooner rather than later) that I would effortlessly loose weight, feel great, and possibly even be the next 'Freelee the Banana Girl'. How vein, right? Well, I let go of that mindset long ago, I couldn't care less what I look like (within reason, I wouldn't let myself become a 500lb woman) but, If I just stayed the same as I am, I would be happy. My priority lies with the fact that I know I am not contributing anymore to animal cruelty and child hunger. And that means the world to me. I actually feel for the first time that I have purpose in life. And this has led me to question a lot of things, but mainly;

What am I doing with my life?

What am I going to become?

And I realised, that this is the time in our lives where we choose what we stand up for and believe in, and what place we take in the world, who we want to be, and what our identity is. I want to be seen as someone who loves, and is kind, and supports equality and freedom for all people and animals, and then maybe I can inspire people to look at their lives and what they believe in, and if they decide to change, then I feel like I've accomplished something, that's my purpose in life.

What's yours?

Have you ever wondered what you are REALLY meant to do, and how you are going to get there, I feel like these upcoming years are going to be very testing, mainly due to the fact that you have one shot to make something of yourself, or else.. or else??? That's the scary part, the 'or else'. What if I wasn't at Uni? What if I decided to take a different path. And although I do feel like Nutrition is still a path I want to take, is it the most full-filling path?

These are the questions that swim around my head at the moment, and I feel like I am in the midst of a lot of critical decision making. Decisions which can alter the whole course of my life, I just wish I knew the outcome in advance!

So I wanted to ask, where are you in your life? Have you made decisions which you regret, or taken a risk that has turned out wonderfully?

I'd love to know :)

The best healthy Sweet & Sour sauce

This recipe was a pure accident, I had some kale and home-grown silver-beet (woohoo!) and I was looking for a way to make them tasty...(yes, kale and silver-beet don't taste good normally!) and I thought about an Asian style stir-fry, but I knew that those usually contain lots of soy sauce and other salty ingredients, so I thought, maybe I'll go for a sweet option, and the best sweet and sour sauce was born! and it's 80:10:10, NO salt or oil! I can't believe it either..


 I had already put rice on when I came up with this recipe, but I'm definitely going to try this with some noodles as well!

The best healthy Sweet & Sour sauce

Ingredients;

- 1 onion, diced
- 2 stems of red kale, chopped (optional)
- 1 leaf of silver-beet, chopped (optional)
- 1 fresh red chilli, finely sliced
- 1 tomato, roughly chopped
- 1 can of no salt canned tomatoes
- 1 tub of no added salt tomato paste
- 1/2 teaspoon of ground chilli
- Sprinkle of black pepper to taste
- Around 2-4 heaped tablespoons of coconut sugar, to taste!
- 1/4 of a cup of water

Method;

1. Heat up a large pan on high heat, add onions and stir continuously until slightly brown and translucent
2. Add the kale and silver-beet, or any other vegetables that you choose and sauté until wilted
3. Add the water and cover to allow to steam for about 2 minutes
4. Remove lid and add the chilli, and the fresh tomato, continue to sauté for a further 2 minutes
5. Add the canned tomato and tomato paste and stir through, reduce the heat to a simmer, add the ground chilli, pepper and coconut sugar and stir.
6. Simmer for another 2 minutes and your ready to go!

Enjoy!

P.s I could not taste the silver-beet or the kale whatsoever, success!

A little story about Hypoglycaemia, plus my 30 day challenge that I want you to join!

So, as the title suggests, recently on my rawtill4 journey I have come across a couple of other symptoms that are very interesting to me.

Before I continue with this I may have to make another confession, I had been slacking off a bit, and what I mean by this is that I wasn't eating enough.

During the day I was sipping on a couple of 400-500cal banana smoothies and then having a 1000cal dinner, not quite the recommended 2500cal minimum. This mentality was brought on by my old anxieties around eating and wanting to see results faster then my body was dishing them out. Old habits die hard it seems.

Anyway, what I found from doing this is that after I went to bed at night I would wake up for my routine nightly pee, except that I would be in a sweat, this sweat could range from a slight dampness to full blown ‘I've-just-been-for-a-run-sweat.’ Gross!

Now I had done some research into why I was sweating so much by this point and all resources pointed to hypoglycaemia;

'But how could this be??' I thought, 'I'm eating a high carbohydrate diet!'

I was feeling rather confused and slightly sceptical, until this one particular afternoon when I was just about to tuck into a big bowl of pasta, I was just waiting for it to cool down when I started to feel hot and sweaty, and to be quite honest it was putting me off my food, I thought to myself;

‘If I'm all hot and sweaty now, how much sweatier and hotter will I feel after a 1700cal bowl of hot pasta!’ 

Nevertheless, my love of pasta took over and I began to eat…and to my surprise the sweating stopped! I actually got colder after my meal, very interesting indeed...

I was then convinced me that what I was experiencing was hypoglycaemia due to being undercarbed! How crazy is that! 

Now I have to tell another story, the story of ordering 168 bananas from the supermarket!

Basically after scolding myself for not being motivated enough to nourish myself properly I found out that freshchoice was advertising bananas for $1.69NZD per kilo! (a.k.a VERY cheap!)

My eyes lit up immediately and when I arrived at the supermarket, I rather nervously went up to the checkout;

“Hi, can I please have 168 bananas?” hahah I don’t think I will ever feel normal at the supermarket again. 

Anyway the point is that for the next 30 days I am challenging myself to consume 20 bananas a day as well as a cooked dinner, and I challenge you to do the same!

I am already at Day 2 and I actually feel amazing, more amazing then I expected to feel!

What I want to try and get across to you guys is to please please PLEASE make sure you all eat enough on this diet! I believe it is paramount to your success!

There is definitely a reason why the recommendation is at least 2500 calories a day of low fat high carb vegan food, it really is what you need! I am definitely going to monitor how I feel over the next 30days, but so far so good!

I hope you all join me for this amazing experience and let me know how you all go and remember...

SMASH IT IN!