Spring Cleaning Challenge!

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LIW +2.4
Overnight GAIN 0.6

Here is my menu for the day before - this is what I ate:

Breakfast: WW Bagel and Cream Cheese
Lunch: Mango and Strawberry Salad with Cottage Cheese
Dinner: Bulgogi (Korean BBQ Meat), squash and onions, large salad with blue cheese dressing, Beer
Snacks: banana, leftover hamburger patty, almonds

A total of 1965 cals divided: 83 fat grams (37%), 150 carb grams (29%), 121 protein grams (25%)

Spring Cleaning Challenge

As spring finally makes her appearance here in Coastal South Carolina, I find myself busier with offline pursuits. Yesterday for example, I got up a little later than normal so I didn't have time to get online and post a post, or visit blogs or much of anything that was computer related. Once I did get up, I was pretty much going all day long.

Yesterday was glorious! The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, my plants were enjoying the warmth (as was I). While enjoying the rejuvenation that spring brings to the earth, I thought about how I might take the whole "spring cleaning" thing and apply it to my body.

As humans, we all develop a certain cushion when winter comes around. It's just the time of year where we tend to throw all caution to the wind and allow ourselves to huddle down for the winter with warm, homey, comfort foods - but when spring hits, we all tend to think, let's get ready for summer! Let us use the spring to bounce ourselves with all eagerness into all the fun that summer brings!

Spring is the time we normally prepare our homes, our yards, our lives, and we get ready for the rest of the year. How about we get our bodies ready also???

Now is the time for us to take advantage of all the good things that nature can provide us that is new and fresh. Fresh greens, fresh herbs, fresh veggies, fresh fruits, all the first produce from the season are at optimum levels for health! Are you taking advantage of the spring?

I am! I want to take advantage of the spring time offerings and want to concentrate on getting more veggies, more fruits, trying more herbs, getting in more greens - how about you? I propose a challenge to all my readers. Let's take this next week and concentrate on going for at least 50% of our food to be from the "raw" and preferably GREEN category. Whether you are on P2, P3 or P4, we can all accept this challenge!

Let's concentrate on "green" - WHY?

• Leafy Green Vegetables May Help Keep Brains Sharp Through Aging
• Fight cancer with dark green vegetables
• Green Leafy Vegetables - Nutritional Powerhouses

So what are some "green" vegetables (and fruits) that we can concentrate on?

• GREEN FRUITS & VEGETABLES

What I find completely interesting about the above list is how similar the veggies are to the ones that Dr Simeons asked us to eat on protocol. Isn't that amazing?

What do I mean by 50% raw? If you eat 3.5 oz of chicken (using P2 weights) they you must match that with at least 3.5 oz of a RAW veggie. You would have eaten 7 oz of food, but 50% of it was raw. Get it? Normally, on P2, I try to eat one meal with a cooked veggie and one meal with a raw veggie:

4 oz fruit (raw)
3.5 oz protein (cooked)
6 oz raw veggie (raw)
4 oz fruit (raw)
3.5 oz protein (cooked)
5 oz cooked veggie (cooked)

As you can see from my P2 menu example above, I am getting 13 oz of raw food and then 13 oz of cooked food. That is 50% eaten raw - this is just an example to show that you can do this on P2 as well as P3-P4.

Who is with me???

Ewewho has started making green smoothies every morning, and she has already made the commitment to go at least 50% raw (for her and her husband) and is already experiencing a noticeable difference in her health - as well as PHENOM changes in her husbands health. And it's only been a FEW days!

If you decide to take on this challenge, let me know. I have all kinds of ways you can contact me, either here by commenting, or my tag-board, or I have a contact form in the left side bar of my blog. We will start the challenge tomorrow, MONDAY APRIL 14th, and continue it for 7 days. I will come up with all the particulars by tomorrow morning and post them, rules and such. Like I said, it doesn't matter if you are on P2, P3 or P4 - everyone can participate!

Oh! I am getting excited again! Starting to get my MOJO back! It's spring people, time to LIVE-IT, not DIE-IT!!!

On to my commenter's - these are my responses to Friday's comments:

Mary - Nope, not beating myself up at all. I am doing MOST excellent! Don't ever associate bad vibes with eating girlfriend, get over that ok?

Liz - Ah yes, we have to be reminded of what is real eh? I think what I have proposed as a challenge will get us ALL on the right track. What do you think?

CB - Awww, look at you sweetie, you are MY hero!!! I am on your coat tails, following your lead!

Becca - I remember that show! I could NEVER do that, my brain just doesn't work that way. Did you ever watch Frasier? There was an episode where Martin (the father) got a vanity plate, and I was like, um, uh, I don't get it! I felt just like FRASIER - HA! Girl? It aint nothin but a thang! LOL

B - Oh gosh B, thank you so much!

Lili - HERE! HERE!

Amie - Glad it was of some good! I sit here and have constant conversations with myself, trying to always weigh the pros and cons of any decision that I make. I am always glad when someone gets some good use out of my ramblings!