Brag Alert!

[Paula]

Hey, Tina, I think we need a new board - Brag Alert! - so we can brag about how good we've been. ;D

Anyway, I have officially gone a WHOLE WEEK without a soft drink product! Do you have any idea what a major accomplishment that is for me??

I'm trying my best to get our household away from high fructose corn syrup, but it's hard. I've added more fresh fruits and veggies to our diets, I'm drinking vinegar water every day and we're eating less sweets. I'm cooking more from scratch and staying away from convenience foods, hot dogs, lunchmeat, etc. (My kids are NOT happy with me at the moment.)

I'm a little perplexed by my ph strip reading this morning. It's the first one I've done since the one I did a few weeks ago where it showed NO CHANGE in color at all. Today's was BLUE and pretty dark, not green at all. I remember Tina saying once that it's possible that a very dark color is a *rebound* effect or something to the effect that your body is drawing something from somewhere to make up the difference and that's actually worse than a lighter color. (I'm sure I've totally botched what she really said, but ds's music in the background has my thoughts going haywire at the moment). Also, there's the possibility that the cup of coffee I had last night around 8:30 may have altered the results a bit. Maybe, if I remember, I'll do another one again tomorrow morning WITHOUT the cup of coffee late at night.

But, at any rate, I am so proud of myself for steering clear of the Lime Coke that has lured me under its powers lately. The true test will come next week, though, when my monthly friend comes along. I'll probably be craving that Coke w/Lime and my potato chips w/vinegar in a major way!!

Paula

[Mom2boys]

Paula,
That's great! Yes, you can definitely have a rebound effect. You will peak out and then begin to come down. It sounds like you were so acid that your body was producing ammonia to overcompensate. So how do you feel?

I missed a whole week of eating raw due to being busy and not having time to prepare anything and let me tell you, I felt awful by Thursday night. I had no energy and literally wanted to kick the dog I made carrot salad and this really cool angel hair pasta made of zucchini (it's a cool gadget that I bought that makes it) and I feel so much better today.

Just perservere. Is there soda in the house? How about vinegar chips? If so, get rid of them. Can you make a pan of healthy brownies or a batch of healthy cookies? Maybe if you make the kids some treats it will help.

Also, on the ACV, I cut up cauliflower and put it in a jar with 1/2 acv and 1/2 water . It is like pickles and I get the ACV. If I had it to do over again, I would do 1/3 ACV and the rest water because it is pretty tart.

[Katie]

Wow, that is awesome Paula! I wish I could be as good as you.

You mentioned Lime Coke. I've only tried it once...here's what it reminded me of:

Being at my parents cabin, liberally dosed in Deep Woods Off (Euuuu!!!) and drinking coke. For some reason, to me the taste of Lime Coke is like drinking a combination of coke and bug spray.

[Paula]

Well, now, don't that paint a pretty picture, Katie! Thank you so much for that! I feel a very similar way about lime Skittles. They taste like bathroom cleaner, if you ask me about it, I guess due to the way they smell when eating them.

Tina, I'm not sure if I'm feeling that much better or not. We're feeling pretty stressed around here due to the never-ending quotas dh is still having to meet. He's got some pretty steep ones by the end of August to meet or his contract with Farmers is cancelled. Only the Lord knows for sure and I'm doing pretty well leaving it in His hands and accepting His grace for whatever may happen in the next couple of months. So I am not *worried* so much as I am just weary of this journey we've been travelling on for over three years now. I've come a long way with my fears, Baby! But still very, very tired of the constant struggle. Soooo, to say I feel better physically, I can't really say that. I'm still tired. But that could just be due mostly to the stress, so any improved eating habits will have an uphill battle to fight in helping me feel better physically.

I made pizza for lunch today and that's a meal that we've ALWAYS bought Coke for. Well, ds talked dh into getting one for the pizza - and I didn't have ANY OF IT! Didn't even want it! I drank my water with lemon and enjoyed it very much. What's happening to me??

I don't know how to make healthy brownies or cookies, but even if you gave me some recipes, I probably don't have the ingredients. I'd like to have some, though, if you put some on the Recipe board. (They may be there already, I forgot to check it before typing this message.)

I took another ph test this morning and it was closer to 6.6. Still not alkaline, but isn't that better than no color change at all? I'm still wondering if the cup of coffee I had before bed the night before had something to do with the very, very dark color. Anyway, I think I'm getting better.