215 pounds and running a 10K?!?!?

At the completion of the 10k, wanting to lay down!!
215 pounds

This post is about my journey in jogging, you can look around my blog and find out how I eat to fuel this exercise. I don't touch on the food side of the health equation, but feel it is EXTREMELY important and more-so than the exercise. I love this saying, 'You can't outrun a bad diet!!'

God can have a funny way of getting our attention. I was perusing Facebook one morning and  a friend of mine posted that she had registered for the Disneyland 10k and wasn't able to run in it. She was asking if anyone would want to buy the 2 registrations from her. I talked to my husband and we decided to do it. No, big deal, right?!? Wrong! We had never ran 1 mile before, let alone 6.3 miles. I was very skeptical that I could lug my 235 pound body around Disneyland while jogging! We had five months to train. Thankfully, I found an app that would train us, and it was free! It's called C210k. The few months previously, I had been walking about a mile every other day, so I wasn't completely out of shape, but FAR from being able to jog a mile. The first day of training, we (my husband and I) followed the app and walked for 3 minutes, jogged for 1 minute, walked 3 minutes, jogged 1 minute and so on for 30 minutes. The app is so cool, it speaks to you when to run and when to walk.  I

Eating Out

I have found that I choose to eat at home way more than before. I love the food I prepare, soups, Red Beans and Rice wrapped collards, spagetti squash spagetti and just a yummy big salad! But for those times when I do eat out, I've found some things that help me out.

We took a trip from our home in Southern California to a small town in West Virginia. I was so apprehensive! We were there for a week and ate out the whole time. When we first arrived, my husband found a market for me. I bought peaches, bananas and apples. In my suitcase, I had raw cashews, dates, and raw almonds. So in a pinch I could have a banana and cashews and know it would fill me up.

There was a Denny's just down the road from our hotel and we ate there a lot. Which was great, because they have a veggie skillet meal. It comes with eggs and is cooked in oil and of course has salt. I asked for it with no eggs, and no oil and salt. Plus, they had avocados!!! So I added an avocado. The skillet was so filling and yummy with veggies and potatoes. It easily filled me up to the next meal.  We also ate at Bob Evan's. That was not so nutritarian friendly! I ended up ordering off the 'sides' menu because there was literally nothing on the standard menu that could be modified. So I had a baked potato, with steamed broccoli and whatever other veggies they had, plus a side of fruit. They had smoothies that looked awesome, but they had a bunch of junk in them and dairy, so I passed.  My plate was full and so was my belly when I left the table. As you can see, potatoes are on my plate at every meal. In my everyday, normal life, I might have a potato once a week, so this was an exception. But I felt it was necessary in this situation. I didn't want to be hungry and the choices were so small that I ate those potatoes with out any issue :) For one dinner, we dined at the hotel restaurant. They were not vegan friendly and the waitress offered to have the chef come out and talk to me to work out a meal, but I was in a big group and feeling self-conscious, so I declined. But I did find a hummus appetizer with fresh pitas that I ate. It's was not 100%, but it did the job. On a different occasion, I have talked to managers and such and they've been more than willing to make sure I'm satisfied :)

Starting Out and How to Overcome Food Addiction

How do you start changing your diet so drastically? The way I did it was to take one step at a time. I started by getting information. This lifestyle of eating food that God made just makes sense. I watched many documentaries from different sources and read blogs on the subject. I also googled the different 'diets' that are vegan, plant strong, and low-fat vegan. I found the evidence for a long, disease-free life in all of them. So rather than get overwhelmed, I chose one plan to follow and that was Dr. Fuhrman's, Eat to Live lifestyle. I read his book. Then I decided to do the first 3 days of the aggressive weight loss plan. I bought all the ingredients and prepared what I could. I made the soup and froze it in about 1-1/2 cup portions. I had my salad made and ready to go. Those 3 days of menus lasted me all week because I was the only one eating that food. My 12 year old daughter had a few meals with me, but for the most part, it was just me.  I found that I loved these 3 days of menus and looked forward to eating, so I kept making these recipes and kept going for another week. At that point I was losing weight every day, down 9 pounds in two weeks. I was feeling better than I had been before starting Eat to Live, but still had brain fog and was tired in the afternoon. I tweaked some things over the next few weeks, like dropped oatmeal in the morning. After changing to quinoa, my brain fog went away.  At this point, I was about 4 weeks in and down 15 pounds. I felt better, but still not quite as good as I should. I didn't start feeling great until about 6 weeks in and I just keep feeling better every day. At the 6 week point, I was down about 20 pounds and about 3" off my waist. Currently, I am going on 8 months eating to live and down 64 pounds (94 total weight loss on this journey).

Tips to Help You Along

Technology is a beautiful thing when used correctly. How does it help me stay on track? Pinterest and Evernote are my staples when it comes to having a handy way to keep all of the recipes and motivation right at my fingertips. I discovered Evernote through a blog that was discussing homemaking. One thing I  keep on it is my grocery list. This app syncs to other devices, like my husband's phone. So if he is out shopping, he can look up what we need at any given store and buy it and delete the item off. It all communicates so that our grocery lists are always up-to-date. Evernote is just a list-making app and website. Nothing fancy and it was pretty easy to get to know.

One thing that I love about it, is when I see a post on Facebook in one of the great Eat to Live facebook groups, I can copy the post and paste it into Evernote. I have copied recipes that people have just posted into the feed without any links. I've also copied links.

 If you have another app that you use to keep yourself organized, then think about using it to keep recipes and anything that will help you stay on track. I've copied links in Evernote to websites that give ideas for eating out as a vegan and vegan eating at Disneyland.

Do I Prep and Cook EVERYDAY???

I actually love to cook and make food, but take the help when I can get it. One helper is storing salad makings already prepped in the fridge. They last for days and I have the convenience of having a salad whenever I want one. Here's what I do and have found that works the best.

I buy organic leaf lettuce of varying varieties or whatever is on sale. Some weeks I add finely chopped kale or whatever green I feel like adding. My salad spinner gets used a lot. I will wash the lettuce and chop it, then spin it in my salad spinner. My aunt gave me my spinner years ago and I've finally started using it regularly. The dollar store has spinners too, if you need a cheap option. They actually aren't that expensive, but you can't beat a dollar. So I spin the lettuce and/or greens to get them as dry as possible. Then I put them in a plastic or glass bowl that is fairly large. Large enough to hold a head of lettuce plus added peppers and such. Other veggies that I have found that last a while in this storage method are cut up peppers, cut up or shredded carrots, radishes, and other not-too-juicy veggies. On top of all the salad, I put a paper towel. The paper towel is the magic trick in this! It keeps the lettuce dry and helps prevent that nasty black goo that can form. On occasion, I will cut up cucumbers and tomatoes and store those on top of the paper towel, away from the greens, but they don't last as long.

Beans

Black beans

 Beans, beans, beans, the magical fruit...we all know the rhyme. When you first start to eat them, they can make you toot and toot and toot. But as your body adjusts, the tooting diminishes. I have found, especially in the first 4 months of eating to live, that if I didn't have at least a cup of beans a day, I was hungry quicker after meals.

When I started my journey, I used canned beans, but quickly converted to dry that I season and cook myself. They freeze beautifully and defrost just as well.

I have a small herb garden in my front yard that helps make my beans extra yummy, but dried herbs work just as well. Typically I grab a sprig of rosemary, thyme, sage and use about 5 dried bay leaves. I add all of that with my overnight pre-soaked and rinsed beans to a huge pot (they do expand) with about 3 smashed cloves of garlic. The garlic gets smashed to get all the good stuff out, but you want it whole enough to take it out at the end, or you'll have smooshy garlic in your beans, which is fine if you are good with that.  I also cut up an onion and add half of it, also keeping it in big enough chunks to pull out before freezing. My time is precious to me, so I usually do 2 pots of beans at a time. Usually different kinds. Today was black and white beans. So I'll put half of an onion in one pot and the other half in the other pot. If you are doing one pot, just save the other half in a baggie in the fridge for a salad or whatever you want. You can also just throw the whole onion in one pot. Bring it to a boil then simmer for about 2 hours. I rinse them in a colander and bring to room temperature.

White Beans

Storage has been an issue for me. I cannot find a reliable and space-saving way to store the beans in the freezer besides just using freezer baggies. If you have a great way to freeze them, besides using plastic, let me know! This is one reason I make sure they are not hot when I pack them up. I want as little of the chemicals of the plastic in the food!

They smelled and tasted so delicious that I added them to a leftover stir-'fry' for breakfast. YUMMO!!

Black Beans ready for freezer

Health Issues, REVERSED!!

**In this post I share about my health experiences, I am not a doctor and in no way claim to know about your health. I am strictly sharing about my journey and what I chose to do. You have to make your own choices and consult with your doctor if needed.**

I spoke about how my skin issues reversed, now I want to share about the issues I had that were internal. I had developed hypothyroidism while I was obese. My doctor wanted me to start medication, but I really didn't want to be on medication for the rest of my life (as my doctor told me I'd have to be). This was in the middle of my journey, before I had fully started to eat healthy food. But I knew by then that I shouldn't have to be on medication forever. I knew my body could heal itself. After watching 'The Gerson Miracle', I was even more convinced. I consulted with another medical professional who I thought was into natural healing, but she also told me that food would not cure this. I knew in my gut that I had to try. But it would take me a couple of months to fully dive into the Eat to Live lifestyle.

My blood pressure had always been in the normal range, but as I teetered toward the 246 pound range on my 5'4" frame, my blood pressure showed the stress on my body. The bottom number would delve into the 90's.

Sun-dried Tomato Dressing (Nutritarian Style)

Sun-dried Tomato Dressing for Nutritarians
1 cup raw cashews
1 cup water
2-3 gloves, peeled garlic
about 1/2 cup dried sun-dried tomatoes and 1/2 cup soaking liquid
1 tsp basil

Soak the sun-dried tomatoes in boiling water for about 15 minutes. While those soak, blend the cashews and  the 1 cup water for about 1 minute in a Vitamix or other high-powered blender. (If you don't have one, just blend on super high speed to achieve a creamy consistency. Add the sun-dried tomatoes with the hot water and the basil and blend until creamy. Refrigerate until ready to serve and keep in fridge for up to a week.

Enjoy!

Food Morphing

This has been such an amazing journey. I've mentioned before that when I was 246 pounds when I woke up in the morning, I HAD TO EAT!! I was grumpy and didn't want to communicate, until I could eat. Breakfast was my comfort food place. I loved a super big (like 7) stack of freshly homemade pancakes with butter and syrup. My mouth is watering as I type! Oh, how I loved my pancakes. I also would have loved to take a nap about an hour after consuming that delight, though. Well, I was thinking about writing more about the specifics of what I eat in a day and it struck me as I was going through in my mind what this day has entailed what a morphing my mind has taken. Here's what made that evident, I had cauliflower curry and quinoa for breakfast 2 hours after waking up! I would have laughed you out of here if you would have said I'd be eating cauliflower for BREAKFAST!

Here's the skinny on how my day went, in the food department. I had a banana about 10 minutes after I woke up because I was going on a run and my time has been slipping, so I thought instead of going on an empty stomach as I have been, that I'd try a little of natures sugar to see if that helps. Oh, Man! It did. My time was 1-1/2 minutes faster and I felt sooo much more energy. Here's the rundown, I woke up at 6:30am , had the banana at 6:40, ran from 7-7:35, then had the curry at 8:30am. On my running days (which are every other day) I serve my husband and myself a beet, cucumber, ginger, carrot, kale juice after my run. I drink it as I'm making my family's breakfasts so that it will get in my body before I dump other food into my digestive system. So all that to say, what a change in breakfast from before, not just time and food but my mindset! I'm not obsessive about my food. I don't get crazy when I haven't eaten. It's all just normal and good now.

It astounds me now how obsessed with food I was. Now, I'm not saying that for the first four months on Eat to Live I wasn't obsessed, I was. It is a transition time to get used to buying a lot of food that might go bad in a couple of days. I felt like I was always shopping and preparing. I've tamed that down a lot now. But please know that it takes a while for this to become normal. Plus, it's hard to mentally be ok that you aren't hungry after 3 hours. I had to get used to what my body needed and how it was going to tell me it was hungry. Got off track....lunch today was a leftover veggie 'stir-fry' in a tortilla. I made it a couple of days ago with red pepper, mushrooms, onions, garlic and a spinach salad with a sun-dried tomato dressing that I made this morning. I had watermelon for a sweet ending.

Sun-dried Tomato Dressing for Nutritarians
1 cup raw cashews
1 cup water
2-3 cloves, peeled garlic
about 1/2 cup dried sun-dried tomatoes and 1/2 cup soaking liquid
1 tsp basil

Soak the sun-dried tomatoes in boiling water for about 15 minutes. While those soak, blend the cashews and  the 1 cup water for about 1 minute in a Vitamix or other high-powered blender. (If you don't have one, just blend on super high speed to achieve a creamy consistency. Add the sun-dried tomatoes with the hot water and the basil and blend until creamy. Refrigerate until ready to serve and keep in fridge for up to a week.

Dinner was leftover red beans and rice stuffed collard greens. I put my homemade (homegrown) spaghetti sauce on top, so delicious! That was also my large salad meal. My family had spaghetti with meat sauce, so my collards look very similar and I served a salad too. After eating huge salads for 7 months, you'd think I would be sick of them, but I'm not. Changing dressing every 5 days helps. I start with a dinner size plate and cover it in green leaf lettuce, spinach and sometimes finely chopped kale. Then chopped peppers, tomatoes, radishes, cucumber 1/4 avocado and sometimes onions go on next. Beans are the next layer. Whatever fabulous dressing is the next step and last is sunflower seeds. So delicious. I look forward to it each day.

As you can see, I eat a lot of leftovers. I have 4 different dishes in my fridge that I made within the last week and have been eating off of them since. Did you know you can also pre-make quinoa and keep it in the fridge. I have yet to have too much, but if I did, I'm sure you can freeze it too.

Let me know if you end up making any of these and what you think and what you tweaked :)

Skin issues, REVERSED!

I have had so many more benefits from eating to live than just a 93 weight loss (and counting). From my teenage years until about six months ago, I had psoriasis on my hands. It was so painful, especially under times of stress. It would start with a very itchy rash and turn into a red patch that still itched, then would dry out and crack and bleed. I went to the doctor on and off over the years and tried a couple different creams that would work for a while, but were a pain in the neck. I'd put the cream on at night and then rubber band a baggie on my hand to keep it moist all night. Consistently, I'd have an outbreak in some form on my hand. If it wasn't itchy and bleeding, it would just be a dry patch. Probably unrelated, my knuckles had started to turn darker brown and very dry. I also had dry brown patches on my elbows. All this to say, about a month after starting to eat only plant based, whole foods, all of those skin conditions went away, GONE! My hands are smooth and even toned all the time now, without lotion needed. It's amazing! I haven't done anything special besides strictly following the Eat to Live way of eating.

My son is 14 and for years before he came into our lives, I had beautiful skin. People would compliment me on my smooth, beautiful skin. Well, after giving birth to him, it all went down hill. I had (at times severe) acne. I was 25 when I had him and the acne never went away until recently (I turn 40 this year). The acne hasn't cleared up completely like the other skin issues did, but it is tremendously improved. I'm a picker, so I do have scars, but they are diminishing. My hormones are still working on going back to normal now that I feed myself the ultimate diet :) The difference is that I get 1 or 2 zits once a month rather than 4-10 all month long. I've had two months when I had NO zits. I'll take it!

The other skin related issue that I had were two skin tags. I tried tea tree oil and it didn't work. Well, do I even need to say, that eating to live has taken them away. It took about 7 months for the one to go away and there is still a tiny bump where the other one was. It's amazing to me that when I started feeding myself just the way I was created to eat, my body systems got rid of the stuff that wasn't supposed to be on my body.

I wish that I had a magnifying glass to the inside of my body, I'm sure I'd be amazed at the changes that are happening in there! Check out my post about reversing my hypothyroidism and getting my blood sugar normal.

I See The Finish Line!

Part 3
If you missed the first two parts, here's part 1 and here's part 2. To catch you up,  I watched Forks Over Knives and Hungry For Change and Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. Those changed my thinking. About 6 months after that and being more aware of fruits and veggies, I read Eat to Live. That changed my thinking more. I had already changed from the Standard American Diet to a whole foods diet, and lost 30 pounds, but stalled and was still in the throws of food addiction. Two months after reading Eat to Live and re-reading it, I just jumped in. I felt pretty crappy for a week and just not great for 6 weeks, then I turned a corner (never 'cheating') and feel great! My family and I would suffer through PMS, now that is gone! My food addiction was gone within the first month. Having that gone and feeling so good is what keeps me on the right track. I have it in my head that if I take even one bite of a brownie I will feel sick and be in bondage to it again, I immediately never choose to take that first bite. I was abused by my brother my whole life and he spoke lies and ugliness onto me. So now that I think so clearly, I spot those lies and tell myself the truth. So my emotional life is much cleaner as well. I'm able to work through feelings and situations whereas before, I'd stuff with food and not feel anything. I truly feel that this is the path God wants me on now and I think His help is what keeps me going too. There are times that I lose at least a pound a day, that is motivation right there!! I love this lifestyle and feel so much freedom. I jumped in with both feet and never looked back on December 26, 2013. I've lost 61 pounds since then (It's August 6, 2014) and am still losing, slower, but still losing. 

On the meat front, right now, I am not called to eat meat.  We had a cow raised organically for beef and that is in our freezer right now. I will taste a bite here and there, but that is it. I want my family (who does eat meat) to eat the best meat that I can provide. I know this cow was raised respectfully and I know that every part of him was used. With my family eating meat, I would much rather serve this meat rather than meat raised in a conventional meat operation. We thank God even more for his provision of this animal that we watched grow. It's a very humbling process. As of now, God has provided meat for my family, I'm very open to his guiding and will do whatever He asks of us. We each need to listen to God for what goes into our mouths. He really cares about the food we eat. He wants us to effectively minister for Him. When I was 246 pounds, I didn't have the energy to do the best ministry with my kids as He wanted. I was grumpy, tired, had hormone swings. My kids  love their new mom who has lot's of energy, has a consistent good mood, can hear the voice of the Lord, because there is no brain fog. Satan tries to lie to us that God doesn't care about food. Satan wants us in bondage to food, he wants us to only think about food and eat food that makes us sick and have no energy. How can we fully do the work God has called us to, if we are tired and grumpy? These are things that He has shown me, I pray you will find freedom, if needed, to break out of the lies of Satan and truly look at the food that God has given us :)

Homemade Almond Milk

Making Almond or any nut milk at home is so easy! I'm going to give you instructions on almond milk and cashew milk. As I experiment with other nuts, I'll let you all know how that goes. All you need is some raw almonds, water, and patience. I follow Dr. Fuhrman's Eat to Live program, so I only use raw unsalted nuts. But I know people who use salted and roasted nuts, so it depends on your eating style as to what kind of nuts you use. So, let me give you the recipe :)

First you need to soak 1 cup raw almonds (whole, sliced, or whatever you have on hand). I put them in a drinking glass and then cover them with water. They need to soak for at least 8 hours. I'll fix them and leave them overnight and that works too. When they are ready, drain them and rinse them off. Now you are ready to add them to your blender with 4 cups of water. And blend away!! I have a Vitamix and it takes less than a minute on a medium speed. I haven't tried another blender, but from my past experience making nut-based salad dressing in an Oster blender, it will take a lot longer to blend.

When it's well blended I use a nut bag to strain the 'milk' out. I've used cheesecloth as well, but found the nut bag to work a bit better and it's much easier to use! I hang my nut bag on my cabinets over a quart size mason jar to let it do as much of the work for me as possible, then I squeeze the bag to get every bit out. It's a messy process, but well worth it. Now, I don't like to throw the pulp away, almonds are expensive, so I have started re-blending the pulp with 2 cups of water. So I figure I get 6 cups of milk for 1 cup of almonds. It's a bit more watery, I'm sure, but it's worth it for me to get more out of it. I have a baggie in my fridge of the pulp waiting to be dehydrated to make almond flour. I store the finished milk in the quart sized mason jar in the fridge. It will last for about a week, smell it if you aren't sure. It will definitely tell you when it's bad, yuck.

You might ask, 'Why make your own almond milk, when there are good brands at the store?' I don't like to eat or drink anything that has too many ingredients and those nut milks seem to have a lot of ingredients. My homemade nut milk has 2 ingredients, nuts and water! That's it! It's so easy too.

I also make cashew milk. You follow that same guidelines, just soak for less time. Which is great for those times when you want it practically now and don't want to wait 8 hours. Take 1 cup of cashews (I use unsalted raw) and put it in a drinking cup and soak for 2 hours (instead of 8). Then follow the guidelines for almond milk, the rest is the same, even the baggie in the fridge to make cashew flour.

What do I do with all this milk? My 14 year old son figured out that cow's milk does not agree with him, so he uses the nut milk on his cereal and to make oatmeal. I use it for this divine 'Chocolate Shake'. That shake is well worth the 2 cups of nut milk that it calls for. My kids LOVE it!! You can make any sort of 'ice cream' with these milks. You can freeze the milk in ice cube trays and blend it up with your favorite frozen fruit. I also make 'ice cream' with a frozen banana, some nut milk and whatever frozen fruit I have on hand. I also make a chocolate 'ice cream' with 2 frozen bananas, 2 tbsp cocoa powder and enough nut milk to get the desired consistency I want and blend it up. YUMMY! You will always find frozen squished bananas in my freezer, those things save me when I want a yummy dessert. You can use the nut milk for anything you would use cow's milk for. It's a different taste, so kids who aren't used to it, might balk, but overtime they will adjust. My son said it was very different at first, but now he really enjoys it in his cereal.

Enjoy :)

My Journey

Part 1
I've been on a specific journey with the Lord for the last four years. Here's the story :)

Four years ago I was going to an amazing Spirit-filled Bible study. At that time my husband, Steve, was having tremors. He had been diagnosed with 'Essential Tremors', which is like Parkinson's but doesn't progress as debilitatingly as Parkinson's. His tremors were getting steadily worse, so the doctor relooked at a Parkinson's diagnosis. Wow! That was a scary few days waiting for test results. During that waiting time, I attended this Bible study. The topic that night was having faith in healing. I confessed to this group of about 15 ladies that we were awaiting a diagnosis of possible Parkinson's and that I didn't have to faith to think that it would be healed. The speaker stopped the study and had everyone gather around me and pray over me and through me for Steve. It was overwhelming, let me say, I had faith after that prayer that the Lord would heal him and we would be ok. As I was walking to the door to go home, one of the ladies pulled me aside and said that sometimes the Lord gives her words and He had that night. The Lord told her to tell me to 'look at his diet'. At the time we were eating the Standard American Diet which included a few trips to fast food for me and the kids and Steve ate out even more. I'd cook dinner most night, but with not much depth in thought to the full nutrition I was serving. So I tucked her words from the Lord into my mind and continued to the door and my car to drive home. The study was about 20 minutes from my house. As I was driving I was worshiping to my Christian station that I always listened to and clear as day, God said, "Eat my food." Goosebumps! So that night four years ago from today, God took my hand and led me down this road. Here I am 91 pounds down, Steve has very, very few tremors. Most days they are not detectable. During his worst times, he couldn't hardly get food to his mouth with out losing most of it and writing was futile. A couple of times that we voted, I'd have to fill in the ballot for him. The next election is a few months away and I'm sure he will be filling out his own ballot. I'll continue to share the work that God has done in me and our family, so stay tuned :)

A Typical Nutritarian Day

If you've been around here long enough, you know that I follow Dr. Fuhrman's Eat to Live plan. Many people have asked me what I actually eat in a typical day. I hope and pray that this helps you and that you find ways to make this way of eating work for you. I'll gladly answer any questions left in the comments. Let me know if you have any great recipes to share too :)

Breakfast has morphed from having to eat first thing after stepping out of bed to being able to wait for 2 hours. As the timing of eating has changed, my choices have changed too. From pancakes with butter and syrup to a grapefruit, banana, green juice. When I first started eating to live, I had a cup of oatmeal made with almond milk, cut up dates, cinnamon, 1 tbsp ground flax seed and 1 tbsp chia seeds and a banana on the side. (By the way, I don't measure anything except when making a recipe, I'm guessing on a cup of oatmeal) About 3 months of eating to live, I realized that I was still having brain fog. I stopped eating the oatmeal and switched to cooked quinoa, same add-ins as the oatmeal, but the quinoa took care of my brain fog. Now after 7 months eating to live, I dropped the quinoa and now eat  whatever fruits are in season. Like 2-3 plums, or 2-3 peaches, a banana, some almonds or cashews. I alternate between a green juice and this chocolate shake. I really watch my nut intake, so if I have the shake, I don't eat any nuts with my breakfast.

Lunch is a BIG salad. I like red leaf or green leaf lettuce as a base, then radishes, cut carrots, cut cucumber, 1 cup of beans, 2-3 tbsp sunflower seeds. I'll add 1/4 of avocado if I know I won't be eating it any other time that day. You can add or take out whatever raw veggies you like or don't like. I use a dinner plate for my salad. I have found some great recipes for nutritarian salad dressings like,Vegan Ranch from Amy's Nutritarian Kitchen. I double the spices that she calls for in the recipe, because I like lot's of flavor! If I need a little sweet, I'll have an orange.

Another of my favorites is a Red Pepper Dressing.
1 jar roasted red peppers with liquid
1 can artichoke hearts with liquid (I've made it without these and it was fine)
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1-2 cloves garlic
1 tsp dried oregeno
1 cup raw cashews
almond milk (or other non-dairy milk) if needed to give it a 'dressing' consistency
Blend in a high powered blender for a minute or until your desired consistency*
*If you don't have a Vitamix or Blendtec, you'll need to blend it for a longer time.

I store my dressing in a mason jar with lid and it lasts for at least a week if I double the recipe. I've not had one go bad yet. I use about 1/4-1/2 cup on the salad, just eyeball it to your taste preferences. I use one dressing at a time and when it's gone, I either make a different recipe or remake the same one. It helps add variety to my salads. I'm still not sick of salads :)

Dinner is a soup and small salad or a nutritarian version of what I'm feeding my family.
I'm in a big lentil phase right now, so lot's of lentil recipes.
My Nutritarian Pinterest board has a lot of recipes on it. I have an astericks** in the description of the ones that I've used and enjoyed. Makes me hungry to try a new recipe after looking at that board :)

My go to dinner for the last month is this yummy lentil soup. I'm the only one in my house eating it, so it lasts me about a week. I have yet to get sick of it. You can also put a few portions in the fridge and freeze the rest in individual sizes for later. I use ziploc quart sized bags to freeze with. I can't find a healthier option. I make sure it's cool before scooping the soup or beans or whatever into the bags to diminish any possibility of the plastic getting into the food.

I've called these my lunch and dinner respectively, but if I know that I'm going to a restaurant where the only thing is a salad, I'll have my cooked food for lunch and have the raw salad for dinner. Or if I'm cooking a dinner where I'll be serving salad to the family, I'll have the salad for dinner and the soup for lunch. I aim to have one raw meal and one cooked meal with a small salad. I make it work for me. It's important it to look like I'm eating the same thing as the family. My mom was always drinking a shake during dinner when I grew up, I do not want my kids to think I'm 'on a diet'. I continually tell them that we are all on a diet, some are good food diets and some are not so good food diets.

The recipe that has kept me 100% eating to live is this 'chocolate shake' recipe. My kids gobble this one up!! I have to make a double batch! When I had PMS (which I don't anymore) I'd make this, sometimes every night :) I've had it for breakfast too. In the beginning when cravings were still an issue, I'd eat or drink it too. If I don't have hemp, I substitute cashews and add as much almond milk as I want...for a chocolate shake, I add the recommended  amount, if I want a soft serve ice cream consistency, I add way less.

**An easier version of the chocolate shake is to freeze 2 bananas (mashed up a bit). Use those frozen bananas with as much non dairy milk as you want for your desired consistency and 2 tbsp cocoa powder. Blend until smooth and add raw almonds or raw cashews and pulse for a chunkier consistency if desired.

I hope this is a blessing to those reading. Make it work for you. If God has led you on this journey, listen to his voice, this is His food and He will bless you with it :)