When you’re a former “pro-dieter”, you are all too familiar with the standard “diet food”. There are some items that I ate so much of over the years in the name of “dieting”, that I couldn’t bring myself to eat them now, even if I wasn’t vegan.

Low Fat Cottage Cheese (or any cottage cheese really) ranks at the top of that list. Even just typing it makes me gag. Then we have canned tuna. Can’t smell it, can’t touch it, can’t eat it, can barely pass the stacks of cans in the grocery store without making a face (actually I do make a face when I see them). Diet Soda is next. Go off it for an extended period of time and you’ll see what I mean. That stuff tastes like chemicals… I don’t care how much they say it tastes like the real thing… It isn’t the real thing (what ever they mean by “real” when referring to processed food-like products).

And then there is celery. I cannot tell you how many pounds of celery I put away over the years. In fact, vegetables in general fell into the category of “diet food” for a long time. I avoided them because I thought they tasted blah (which some do thanks to modern day farming practices). When I ate them it wasn’t to be healthy, it was to lose weight. If you think those are automatically one in the same, you are sorely mistaken. Just ask someone who has overcome an eating disorder… cause we know how it is.

Well, I’ve started eating celery again, but not to lose weight this time. I’m eating it because it’s good for me. It’s taken me a while I truly get past the thought that if I’m eating healthy food then I must be dieting. Those don’t have to go hand in hand either. I’m eating fruits and veggies because they are living food. They pack a nutritional punch, one that cannot be mimicked by pills or shakes or whatever man can invent. I’m eating them because I feel better when I do. They aren’t “diet food” to me any longer… they’re “living, healing food”.

Are you looking to make some changes in 2013? Check out The Journey for more information.

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What I read: Exodus 33-35

What I ate:

• Breakfast – 7 oranges juiced
• Pre-TKD – 2 bananas; Post-TKD – 6 oranges juiced
• Lunch – Green Smoothie (6oz apple juice, 6oz coconut water, 2 bananas, 2 oz kale, 2oz spinach, 7oz strawberries)
  
• Afternoon Snack – 1 Banana
• Dinner – a plate of mixed veggies dipped in guacamole
  
• PM Snack – OJ

What I did: TKD Class (55 min) + 1 hour in skates teaching preschoolers

Here are the notes I made regarding my symptoms throughout Day 41:

• slowed digestion (gas, abdominal pain, bloating)
  
• headaches
  
• puffy hands, feet, and face
  
• sinus congestion
  
• dry/itchy eyes, skin, and scalp
  
• acne
  
• aching muscles and muscle spasms
  
• foggy brain
• irritability
  
• mood swings
  
• blood sugar fluctuations
  
• fatigue – still having bouts of fatigue, but not as bad
  
• unable to sleep well
  
• unquenchable thirst
  
• cravings
  
• chest pain
• cold sores – last one 1/13/2013
  
• kidney stones – eliminated when we went vegan Oct 2011
• tooth pain