What my future holds

So this is what my schedule looks like.

My goodness.

Somewhere in there, I'm also suppose to have a life. Oh, and do research.

The black text are classes I'm taking and the red text corresponds to labs I'm teaching/having to attend for said labs/pre-lab set-ups. I also have a reading group that has yet to be scheduled as well as a few weekend trips for my Quantitative Methods course.

And as you can see from the time stamp in the corner, I have a class starting within the hour.

I will miss you all.
-Bonicita

And now for something completely different...

Ok! So! Got back to Tallahassee about a week ago(?) and have been in a TA workshop all week. We were told, quite a bit, that we shouldn't date our students. I bet some bozo is still going to do it.

I'm actually sitting in my office right now because there is no internet at Ken's yet and I have a meeting at 2 for the lab I'll be instructing. We'll be picking times for the labs so my next post may be happy or it may be downright sad.

The raw diet was not for me. I know that. I think I'll just focus on eating healthy -- that'll be quite the change.

I got to visit Fredo and his gang for a bit which was nice. Those kids are growing up way too fast!

A special welcome to Jenny! She's my cousin living in Germany and from the sounds of it, I need to send her kid a dino shirt PRONTO!

And now to share some fotos from here and there and everywhere in between.

A perfectly curled Mocha.

Ninja Toby -- Too Fast for You

My nephew lookin' super cute!

A blanket I just finished for Ken. Took forever!

Ok, well. Meeting starting soon so I'll try to update later.

See ya!
-Bonnie

I've decided to stop counting the days.

Sorry this post has been a long time coming. The internet went out at the house I'm staying in so I've been checking email whilst at the home of Toby and Mocha (I'm totally stealing internet from the cafe next door).

Toby and Mocha. Adorable.

The other night (Tuesday?) I had dinner with some of my family and brought over the raw pomegranate cheesecake con strawberries. And it was a resounding success! Everyone seemed to really enjoy it and my uncle wants it for his next birthday! Haha! I thought that it was tasty, maybe a bit too sweet, but I was glad I could share it with people. Eating it all by myself would have been so so BAD.

It was great seeing my cousin, too. I haven't seen her in YEARS! That's right, years. I'll get to hang out with her a little bit on Sunday before she heads back to school but it's just been too damn long.

YUMMY! And RAW!

She had just gotten back from Mexico, where she was doing mission work. I have so much respect for her. She's the type of person that makes you want to find that spiritual center in yourself but doesn't get pushy -- and believe me, I've met enough people trying to convert me.

Sadly, my career as a luchadora was short lived.

Our "goofy" pose. We do it well.

On Wednesday nothing really eventful went on. Talked to Fredo some more. He gave me some supplements: one system detox, one total heart, and one total parasite --which are in my lungs, apparently. I also had dinner with Jonathan (a friend through Aunt Peg) and his sister at the Flying Biscuit which was delightful. It was nice to get out of the house and to talk to different people.

Thursday was a bit of a wash. Dereck was suppose to get home but ended up having his flight cancelled so I didn't do much of anything. I hung out with the cats A LOT so I got caught up on The Secret Life of the American Teenager and Project Runway. I get addicted to TV pretty fast -- especially when I can watch it on YouTube.

It looks like I'll be staying on this raw/vegetarian diet for at least another two weeks. I need to be on a raw diet for the intestinal cleanse and then it's probably best that I ease back into eating other foods -- thus the vegetarian aspect.

And Patrick, the water was clear at the beginning but it would have changed colors even without my feet being in there. What comes out are the black flecks and white film. It has to do with "science" and "electrons" which you'd think I'd be good at explaining -- but I'm not. All I know is that I get the treatments for free and that is a big perk of having your brother be a total wellness professional.

Alright, sorry this is short. I gotta get back to Dereck and Tim's so I can clean house a bit before he gets home. Cheers!
-Bonnilla

Day Five, Six, and Seven or Wait. What? I have a blog?

This post is long and has a few pictures. Just a heads up.

Sorry about the delay, folks. This weekend was eventful and lots of good things happenin'. I just got real lazy on Sunday (probably due to Saturday night) and never updated.

I thought I'd start by addressing some questions Patrick asked me after my last post:

What are you doing for protein or is there something you are constantly eating that has a lot of protein in it? I don't really know what I'm doing for protein other than I'm eating a ton of nuts. I'm sure that the meals I'm eating contain protein as well but as far as snacking goes, it's pretty much nuts and fresh fruits. This problem will reappear later in this post.

Also, how is the not too hot food thing? This may be the hardest part about this whole deal. I really crave something warm, just warm and not having anything like that is brutal. I've found a few recipes for soups where you use a cup of warm water and all that jazz but I'm wary about enjoying the first half of it and then hating the last half because it gets all cold.

Oh, one last thing...how are you feeling? More energetic? Lethargic? Cleansed? I'm really feeling quite lethargic to be honest. I'm not exactly an ingredient goddess so I don't really know what goes good with what and it's real easy to get too lazy/disappointed to make something. Though I have plowed through. I did notice a huge change, though, from Saturday night to Sunday morning that I think was a reflection of this diet -- and as such will be explained in just a bit.

Thanks for reading, Patrick! And for asking good questions! Hope the Chicago move didn't kill you too much!


Now onto to Saturday.

Ken arrived real late Friday night and we pretty much went straight to bed. The next morning, we woke up and met my adorable nephew and my brother at some mall. Apparently my nephew's favorite skateboarder was signing autographs and the what so we met them over there for lunch.

I know, right? He's four and already breaking hearts.

I talked to my brother, who along with being a chiropractor, also knows a thing or two about nutrition. After getting my salad for lunch he asked me what my protocol for the raw diet has been.

A protocol? Was I suppose to have one of those?

What sort of cleansing process did I do beforehand to prepare?

Wasn't this the cleansing process?

It was at this point that it hit me. I had no clue what I was doing. I have no plan so I didn't know what I should be eating and when. I didn't know what food groups were really entering my body and in what amounts. I was, effectively, doing this whole thing backwards.

It was about this time that Ken brought up the fact that we were having dinner with his sister than night at the Melting Pot. All my brother said was to enjoy the Melting Pot and then to come by his office on Monday to get an outline of what I should be doing.

I thought about this (and his mention of a blood type diet as an alternative) while Ken and I went to check out the Georgia Aquarium.

Ken and I both agree that the aquarium was OK. The exhibits were nice and all but they seemed really confined. However, that could have been due to the ENORMOUS amount of people at the joint. It's been awhile but I think that I still like the Florida Aquarium better.

Everyone and their brothers.

Hot beluga action.

Ken and I glad to be out of there.

After that, we ventured over to met Aunt Peg at my other petsitting gig. I had to pick up the keys and codes and get the official rundown. Following this, we headed to the Melting Pot and I took part in the fondue feast.

My stomach did not like this. Which means two things: 1) My body was saying ABORT to the drastic change in both food type and tonnage, and 2) I was sad because I fucking love the Melting Pot.

We came home, my stomach settled a bit, we let Carson out, and we headed back out to see "Pineapple Express" at the movie theater. Not a bad flick but this is not the post to discuss that (maybe after this if I'm not passed out).

Got back late, fell asleep, woke up early on Sunday and took Ken to the airport.

And I mean early. I knew there would be paving on 20 later in the day so I went over to check the cats at the other gig (Toby and Mocha -- beautiful felines) and got that trip out of the way. I got back to the house and Carson was still sleeping. I didn't blame her -- instead I joined.

After that extended nap I got up and made banana raisin oatmeal (back to raw). It, well, tasted like cold oatmeal. Not bad -- I could imagine making this in the future. I added a little cinnamon after the photo though to give it just a little boost of taste.

Yep, it's oatmeal.

For the rest of the day, I was insanely tired/bored/ugh. I think it was the combination of the early morning antics and the food the previous night. I hadn't felt this lethargic since I began this dietary change and I really think that most of my attitude that day was due to my body getting back at me for thrusting all that wonderful Melting Pot goodness upon it.

It could also be that my man had left. And well, that sucked, too.

And that brings us to Monday.

Today was interesting. After tripping the house alarm and having to alert the homeowners that the call they would get from the alarm people was NOT due to someone raiding the house (yes, really), I got ready and heading to check on Toby and Mocha, followed by lunch with my brother.

We went to this swanky place called the Goldfish Restaurant, next to the Perimeter Mall, for a sushi lunch. Oh my god, so good. We shared our plates but I had to get a snapshot of mine before it was devoured.

Gorgeous AND tasty!

After lunch, Fredo and I headed back to his office and he taught me all about my bioelectric sphere. The whole conversation was interesting and he seemed to figure out what was wrong with me pretty quickly through manual muscle testing. Apparently, I have some heart weakness and some toxicity issues. I know that this all seems a bit "new age-y " but I honestly don't think my brother would try to steer me wrong. Plus I'm a bit more inclined to follow a more holistic approach to getting better.

He gave me information on how to do an effective intestinal and liver cleanse, as well as supplements I should start taking to get my heart in check and my toxicity lower. He also gave me the information to start on a blood type diet. I'm not sure if I could last on that diet either. Apparently type B's should avoid both black AND pinto beans.

How am I going to have a freaking taco?

Oh! I also got to do a foot bath detox. Ya know, where they drag all the bad ions out of you via the feet? It was pretty cool watching that in motion, but also kind of gross.

The aftermath.

And that's sort of it. You can wake up now.

Tomorrow I head over to have dinner with some of my family as we celebrate the return of my cousin from my distant people's land: Mexico. I'm bringing the aformentioned raw pomegranate cheesecake so I'll let you all know how that goes over with everyone. My aunt can even eat it because the crust doesn't contain gluten! HUZZAH!

Ok, well, I think it's time I got to sleep.
-Bonasaurus Rex

Day Four or Good Aftanoon

Got up today pretty late and decided to just have a few bananas and a peach for breakfast. Tim came at about 1:30 and we just sort of took off for downtown Decatur. We had lunch in this little place but the salad was just sort of eh, and the dressing was OVERPOWERING! So I didn't get much to eat but I thought I was fine. When we got back to the house, I realized I had nothing for dinner and suddenly my stomach began to growl.

I decided that I would try one of the raw restaurants I had heard about and so I hoped in the car with addresses in hand. I drove half an hour only to find that the place I was looking for was nowhere to be found. Bummed, I headed to YDFM and managed to get my shopping down and get back home before 8:30.

I've definitely been having a craving for meat. But not so much meat, but rather, meaty food, like chili. I stumbled across a recipe for raw chili on this here site and decided to go for it. It could be that I was to the point-of-not-feeling-hunger hungry but I thought it was damn good. I ended up adding more chili powder and cumin to my mix because I like those kicks but it was still tasty from the get-go. Pretty watery but the chunks of red and yellow bell peppers and onions (yes, I ate raw onions) added a great crunch. Super easy to make so go do it! I dare ya.

Chili burps are included.

I found this recipe for pomegranate cheesecake (courtesy of Chef Russell James) when I was first looking into the raw diet. I wasn't about to commit if I couldn't have dessert! Decided to make it tonight so that Ken and I could possibly enjoy it tomorrow. I have a feeling that there will still be too much sugar in it for him but I had been telling him about this recipe for so long that I felt bad NOT waiting for him.

I love the contrast in colors. That's the only reason I took this photo.

Popped it into the freezer and am just waiting for it to harden. Probably won't get to try it til tomorrow but from the tiny taste I got of the mixture it is going to be scrumptious!

I CANNOT wait for this bad boy to set.

Ok, well, waiting for Ken to get here so I'm gonna wrap this up here. Have a good one!
-Bonicita

Day Three or Sleeping Faster

Today was a super lazy day. Even Carson didn't seem to have the energy to really play outside and at about midday, it was extremely overcast and looked like it was going to pour. So Carson slept (A LOT) and I read (A LOT). It didn't end up raining but that didn't stop us from not doing much of anything with the day.

For breakfast I had, you guessed it, BREAKFAST CAKES! Still yummy but I think next time I make the batter (this will definitely be a recipe that holds over after this experiment) I'll only make a half batch since four days (counting tomorrow) of cakes can get downright boring.

A bevy of bananas.

For dinner I made the gazpacho with cucumber and tomatoes. It was alright. The base was pretty bland, to be honest, and I found the chunks of tomatoes and cucumbers floating in the mix to be the best part about the whole recipe. This, I'm sure, is funny to people who know me since the only form of tomatoes I really like -- rather, LOVE -- is ketchup.

Underwhelming but filling.

And for desert I had the rest of the Mraz Chocomole recipe I whipped together last night. As I pulled it out of the fridge, I noticed that it had a real refried beans look to it and for a brief second wished to be eating a large bowl of refried beans. I guess that's one of those "cravings" I'll be experiencing in the coming days.

Could just put that on a taco, yessir.

Other than that, nothing much to report. Ken will be up here tomorrow night! Tomorrow afternoon, however, I will be hanging out with my cousin (some people know him as Shamrock) and I was told we were going to get "crunk in the ATL". I don't really know what that means, but ok.

-Bonstermatic

Day Two or It's Getting Better All The Time

Day two began with breakfast cakes! Yum! I still had batter from yesterday AND I got the mix to actually look like pancakes (read: they were in round, flat shapes). The were delicious. And so was the PEACH! Thank you GA!

Doesn't he look like a happy fellow?

Still no milk alternative and I don't have a juicer so I've been drinking water with every meal. Which isn't too bad actually. I really want to taste the flavors in the food so it's kind of nice not having that distraction.

Thank you, oh glorious Sigg bottle!

Breakfast was had at 11AM which pushed dinner back to about 5PM. I made a mushroom risotto which was very very savory. The risotto base was made from acorn squash -- a vegetable that, up until now I'm not sure I've ever had. I think I'll add more mushrooms to it and have it for lunch tomorrow. God, I love mushrooms. The oil on top of it is just a bit of white-truffle infused EVOO. It was tasty but I really wish I had had some, dare I say it, bread to go with it. The taste can become overwhelming and the garlic aftermath can last for quite some time... It's a recipe that will certainly need to be tweaked a bit before trying again.

Perhaps a little less garlic? Or maybe some more mushrooms?

Now for dessert I decided to stray from the book and try Jason Mraz's chocomole recipe. If you haven't seen the recipe, you can find it here: freshnessfactorfivethousand.blogspot.com

I can honestly say that this is THE best thing I have eaten thus far. Of course, Ken would say this is because Mraz created it and thus I love it, but NAY! It is all sorts of tasty and I will be sharing this recipe for some time to come!

I decided to do all the mixing by hand which I found later to be awesome. It was a snap to whip up and I put it in the fridge to get chilled while I ran to the store and cleaned the kitchen. When I pulled it out of the fridge later, I was afraid all the chunks of my hand-mix would be gross to stumble upon. HOWEVER! It was delicious and the chunks were some of the best parts! Every now and then I would get this great bite of avocado and dates and all the vanilla/agave/coconut oil goodness the ensemble had to offer. AND it actually looked like the picture. Woo Hoo!

You guessed it, more raspberries!

I encourage everyone to try this recipe for a great, healthy alternative to chocolate pudding. And if you're too afraid to make it, invite me over and I'll make it for you -- and eat whatever you don't eat.

Signing off,
Bonnie

Day One or Long Road to unRuin

And so today I began the grand journey into raw foodism. I didn't make all of the meals I had planned but I did try a few recipes that I can talk about.

Today was a very early morning as the guys I am housesitting for left at exactly 5AM. I got up to see them off and subsequently had breakfast at 4:30AM. Yay for yogurt! Which I think still falls under the raw foods category since it is LIVE cultures.

BUT ANYWAY!

I finally woke up and waited to go to YDFM until after some people had come to look at the gutter. They never did though so I ended up shopping at a MUCH later time than I had anticipated. By the time I got home and made the first dish, it was 4:30PM, and surprisingly my stomach was NOT saying "what the fuck?!"

The catch

I decided to have breakfast again and try the Coconut Breakfast Cakes which were actually quite delightful. Of course, it could be that you use coconut oil in them, as well as agave nectar in AND on them, and I'm not sure ANYTHING could taste bad with those ingredients. Mine, however, looked nothing like the picture in the book. For this reason a magnificent banana was added for aesthetics.

Ken, being the visual foodie that he is, would never eat this.

I also decided to try making a batch of the Chocolate Mylk. I'm sure that many people have enjoyed this recipe. I, unfortunately, did not. It was much too watery for my tastes and I think I'll try to find another milk alternative.

Brown liquid death

A couple of hours later I, attempted to, make the Fuzzy Navel shake, drink, thing. This, too, was not a huge hit for my taste buds. I added the raspberries because they are, without a doubt, my favorite fruit and because the yellow mush in my mug wasn't exactly screaming "EAT ME!" when I looked at it.

That POP of color is simply BRILLIANT!

After adding the raspberries, my first attempt to drink the supposed drink was thwarted by the DQ Blizzard-like consistency of the mixture. And after a flip of the mug (just for DQ funsies) I grabbed a spoon and dug in. I was glad I had added the raspberries because the whole mix was much too sweet/vanillafied for me and the raspberries took some of the edge off. Though not entirely excited to have it again, I probably will since I have a container of the stuff in the fridge.

Note: Add more raspberries

Well, first day done and I'm not dead OR famished yet. WOO HOO!

Going Raw

So this is something I've been thinking about for a little while now. There are many reasons but when it comes right down to it, I just want to be freaking healthy. Over the past year I've felt a major deterioration in my physical and emotional health. I contribute much of this to the fact that my innards aren't getting what they should and as such my outer suffers, a lot. And before I get a bunch of calls from friends about family about "are you sure this is what you want to do??" and "do you know what you're getting yourself into??" let me say this: yes and no, not really.

And that is totally fine with me. This may be the only time I get to experiment with this kind of diet because I don't really know what sort of schedule the next two years will bring other than chaos. I figure if I can get on this diet, at least somewhat, then I am more likely to stick with it for the next couple of years, if not more. So why not try now?

I'm going to be in Atlanta for the next two weeks house-sitting/pet-sitting (for a wonderful couple and one of their beautiful dogs -- a chocolate lab named Carson) so I'm using this period to truly dive headfirst into the raw foodism experience.

I used this weekend as a buffer so I've been eating a total vegetarian diet since Friday. Talk about a detox.

I'll be using Ani Phyo's book "Ani's Raw Food Kitchen" as my guide in this adventure. The food looks amazing and I'm totally stoked to try something new!

Click me for raw food goodness.

I took a photo tonight as a "Before" but there is no way I'm going to post that until after the two week trial period. I don't need TWO photos on the internet of me looking gross and then, possibly, more gross.

Anyway, tomorrow I head to the "Your Dekalb Farmers Market". The place is freaking huge! I went there for lunch today and got an amazing salad and a drink for under three bucks. LESS THAN $3! You can't beat that with a stick!

I'll blog tomorrow about my meals and my reactions. Oh the drama!
-Bonnie