Rainbow Natural Foods is a grocery store in Decatur that is very similar to Sevananda.  Rainbow has a hot and cold bar and even a little room where you can sit and eat once you’ve purchased your items.  It has mostly vegan food and the selection is outstanding (I saw Tofurkey jerky!)! There are prepared raw meals in the deli section (even raw granola bars!), as well as vegan and vegetarian ones.  It’s a small place and is very organic and natural.  If you use your debit card you should try to purchase at least $10.  They get charged more from the third party when the purchase is under $10–they’ll still run but they will let you know for next time. Anyone who is in Decatur should check it out!

Here at the Rustin house, we take exercise very seriously. I switch up my exercise routine between going to the gym and running, doing the elliptical and/or the bike, walking/running around the neighborhood, doing crunches at night (courtesy of my Bender Ball *see below*) and doing Yoga using either Wii Fit on the Wii or Let’s Yoga on the Nintendo DS (both great work out games!!!).

Last week we had an out of town visitor staying with us and he wanted to see the sights of Atlanta.  Thursday we went to Stone Mountain to hike up to the top and do all of the other little games/sights inside Stone Mountain Park.  I had a BLAST climbing the mountain! It’s a mile to the top and at first you’re just using rocks as stepping stones but then it turns into a steep flat slope for the last 1/3 (?) mile.  There are handrails at one point to help you with the steepness of the mountain.  I’m tempted to go back and try to run up to the top (hah!).  I would go here weekly for exercise but its $8 to park and I don’t want to spend $8 a week to park. Maybe I can find a buddy and we can each pay $4…any takers? (hehe)

**I do not recommend buying a Bender Ball. While the ball is easy to use and makes doing crunches more effective, the company rips you off.  Your account will constantly be charged $20 a month and they keep sending you DVDs without permission and taking more money out of your account for them.  I contacted them THREE times to get them to stop charging me.  Finally my bank handled it for me because they wouldn’t stop.

Holy crap! These little buggers are awesome! We got two of them at Nectar after dinner the other night.

I got the Mint Chocolate one and Loren got the Hazelnut one. They are organic, vegan, kosher, gluten and soy free and 90% raw. The ingredients in all of them are dates, cocoa powder, cocoa mass, vanilla, almonds and then whatever flavor they are (i.e. peppermint, hazelnut, coffee). There is no sugar added to them either-just what’s in the ingredients.

Next time you see them, pick one up! You won’t be sorry.

The people that question my new raw food lifestyle all ask the same things.

•Why raw?

•So you just eat a bunch of salads?

•Doesn’t everything being cold bother you?

Why raw? Why not? Raw foodists believe that the act of cooking food robs it of most, if not all, of their nutrients. How many times have you cooked a can of vegetable soup and found the veggies to be mush? That happened because the plant that makes the soup cooks it through, packages it and then you cook it again before eating. These vegetables are giving you nothing that your body needs. Instead, you’re putting sodium, preservatives and other unnatural, lab made chemicals (put there to give the soup it’s “freshness”) into your body. Every ounce of raw food that you consume gives your body purpose. The organic fruit, vegetables and raw nuts and seeds are high in minerals, vitamins, fiber, antioxidants, nutrients, potassium, omega 3s, protein, etc and they’re all in their natural form. Nothing has been processed, no added hormones, it’s all natural and easily broken down by your body. Your skin clears up, you lose weight, it’s easier to get up in the morning, the list goes on…

Salads? Yes, some. The amount of things you can make following a raw diet is vast. With the use of a dehydrator you can make chips, bread, cookies, crackers, falafel, pizza crust, “cheese” sticks… You can puree (in a blender or food processor) many soups, dips, sauces, smoothies, drinks, salad dressings, pie fillings, condiments, “mashed potatoes”… Today I made a creamy garlic dressing for my salad and it was awesome! So yes to salad but that’s just the beginning. You use raw nuts to make pie crusts, aide in sauce, soup and dip recipes and they’re great to snack on! With the use of a sprouting jar you can sprout small beans and lentils. Bigger beans like black beans and kidney beans have toxins in them that need to be cooked out in order to consume. You can eat them uncooked if you’d like but it would end with you vomiting.

I have found the solution to eating cold food all the time is to spice it up! I put cayenne pepper in a lot of dinner meals (i.e. raw chili, raw soup, even the “spaghetti”!).

I’ve been reading a lot of the Skinny Bitch books by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin.  Shit makes sense.  I found a lot of similarities in how I already eat with what they are writing about.  If you are interested in losing weight, fixing your insides, and getting your health on the right track, I suggest you read this book and take it to heart.  Not only am I reading these books, but I’m also taking notes and highlighting what I feel are the important sections.

Ridding my home of high fructose corn syrup and preservatives was easy.  Below are photos of what went and what I bought to replace what went.  In the case of peanut butter and ketchup, all you have to do is buy the organic versions of the product and the result is the same taste and texture without all the added chemicals, sugar, and body killing ingredients.

out with the old!

in with the new!

Loren and I had such great success with The Master Cleanse that I was in the mood to do another. We opted for a shorter, simpler cleanse and went with the 2 day Ardens Gardens detox. I started it on Monday morning so today was my firsy day of food. I found it to be a lot easier to do a 2 day fast but I will say that I stayed hungry the entire time. I lost 5.2 pounds over the course of the 2 days. I weighed myself first thing in the morning on Days 1,2, and 3.

It’s time for dinner but I’m not hungry yet. I wanted to eat before I pick up Loren from work because he’s on Day 1 of the detox. Dinner tonight is soup in a bread bowl and I’m totally excited about it.

The Ease Out process is not to be ignored. I got a little ahead of myself yesterday and ended up with one of the worst stomach aches in the world.  Clearly my digestive systems needed to be introduced to food again.  Friday we drank OJ and broth and later on in the evening we had multi grain pancakes (hehe). Yesterday we woke up early and ran errands for most of the afternoon.  Then we went and had lunch and ordered hummus, pita, veggie wrap, fruit and an omelette with vegetables in it.  We ended up taking half of it home with us and snacked the rest of the day.  Around 10 last night we each ate a veggie dog with some vegetables on top of it.  Around 1:00 am is when the stomach ache of the year rolled in.  Clearly my stomach was in no place to digest a veggie dog, eggs or hummus with pita. hah! it was delicious though! Today I had a grapefruit for breakfast and then started the soup that I should have made and eaten yesterday.  Its got an hour left on the stove before we can eat it.

I’m starting the Ease Out process today. I think its time to stop the cleanse. i felt miserable today and every time i got near the juice i would feel nauseous. I went to Kroger and picked up some OJ and some organic vegetable broth. Today I’ll drink those things and tomorrow I’m going to make some soup. I told myself if there was a time during this cleanse when I was unsure or felt really really bad I would stop. That time came. I’m still proud that I lasted 6 days.

Later:

Since drinking the OJ and broth i feel 110% better! Im glad we did the cleanse–it was a learning experience. I’m sure we’ll do it again one day…we’ve never fasted before so lasting 6 days is a huge accomplishment.  I can consider this experience a trial run.  It can only get better the next time we do it!

Woo hoo!! Day 6! I feel accomplished! Sunday is our last day on the juice and then Monday is OJ and broth. Originally we were still going to do the juice on Monday and then do OJ and broth on Tuesday but Loren’s sister is coming to town on Thursday so we wanted to be able to eat freely when she’s here. Makes her visit less fun if we have stipulations on what we can eat. We want to be able to show her and her friend a good time. I still get hungry around 6 every night but by the next morning it seems like a distant memory. I did my salt water bath yesterday afternoon and was pleasantly surprised. Eliminations were good, long, but good.

So far the biggest problem I’ve had with this cleanse is the bad taste thats in my mouth 24/7. Ive been brushing my teeth at least 4 times a day trying to keep fresh breath. I read that you can drink mint tea to help reduce bad breath and other odors that your body is excreting. I havent noticed body odors but I do pride myself in always being on top of my game hygienically.

Loren posted a video blog of him chugging the salt water bath this morning. Check it out.

More later!

Later

Well i feel terrible. I had a slight scare this afternoon but I’ll save you the gross details. im sick of the juice today–i only had 1 liter. i cant drink anymore today. i did my salt water bath this afternoon and decided to drink my tea around 4 pm so i can have another movement before bed.

Laxative tea is what you use at night if youre going to do a salt water bath in the morning. I did the tea last night and woke up from stomach pains at 2:30 am. I was in the bathroom until 4 am (yes i talk about poop. its an important part of this cleanse).  Needless to say, I decided to snooze until 8:30 instead of waking up at 7:30 and doing the salt water bath. I’ll do my salt water bath later today. It needs to be done on an empty stomach so I’m going to finish my juice around noon and then do the chug at about 2:30 or 3 (whenever i get home from work). More later!

Later:

i did my salt water bath about 20 mins ago. now we play the waiting game. i read that you’re supposed to wait until you simply cannot hold it anymore to go to the bathroom. fun, huh?

i went to whole foods today to stock up on lemons and limes. tomorrow will be the first day we try the juice using limes instead of lemons. i wonder if it will be good–ive never had limeade before. i imagine its going to be similar. the cayenne is going to taste better with the lime though i believe–makes more sense than the lemon. cayenne pepper has actually been known for its healing power for thousands of years. cayenne pepper extract is known to help heart attack victims. you’re supposed to spoon feed the person having the heart attack a teaspoon of the extract every 15 mins or a teaspoon of the powder mixed into a shot glass of hot water. its pretty interesting all the good cayenne peppers do for you. read all about it here.

for those of you who are confused or think we are “starving” ourselves, the juice we make is actually liquid food. lemons and limes contain the richest source of vitamins and minerals of any food. maple and cayenne are also full of vitamins and minerals so your body doesnt feel hungry when you’re on this cleanse. the cayenne re-builds the bacteria in your stomach that dies when youre on it. when you eat solid food, your body is so busy breaking it down it never has a chance to clean itself out. this cleanse is just giving your body the time it needs to clean itself. i am a strong believer that people are not meant to eat red meat. our bodies simply arent equipped to break it down. your little insides are working their butts off trying to break down that burger you ate for dinner last night. they’re tiring themselves out–dont you think they deserve a little break and some “me time”? it takes about 72 hours to break down red meat. if you’re eating red meat everyday, where does it get stored when its waiting in line to get broken down? a recent study has shown that 30-40% of people with colon cancer eat red meat or processed meats daily. avoiding colon cancer means giving up red meat? fine with me…the choice is pretty simple actually. not only does red meat put you on the fast track to cancer but its also LOADED with saturated fat. Oh yeah and it kills innocent animals! Factory Farming is not only disgusting, cruel, and ruthless, it’s also bad for the enviornment!

i feel great. im not hungry and i have a lot of energy again. im really happy we decided to do this cleanse–its already change my life and im only half way though!