Seven Months in the Land of Enchantment

We’ve been living in New Mexico for seven months now…so what do I think so far? Well, for anyone with an interest in moving to New Mexico, I say go for it! I really do love it here with one, little, tiny thing that I absolutely HATE (Noah and Shoshie if you are reading this, close the freaking page)…SCORPIONS! What did I expect? Rainbows and butterflies? Holy shit! Guess what, we’re coming upon scorpion season and yesterday while Dom was in our bathroom, he looked on the WALL and there was a scorpion. He swiped it off the wall and killed it. What’s the name of this particular scorpion dwelling on my bathroom wall? The Bark Scorpion. The picture on the left is what they look like.

Here in New Mexico you can buy one of those handy little black light flash lights. It seems that when you put a black light on them in the dark, they glow. Cool right? Don’t get me wrong, I am very curious about scorpions and think they are really interesting creatures, BUT NOT IN MY HOUSE! I’m paranoid about what’s lurking under the bed now, and also worried about Simmi in her room. This weekend we have to do some major scorpion proofing of our house. I was looking around and realized that there are lots of areas they can come in from. In retrospect, now I’m wondering if Simmi actually may have gotten a scorpion bite. She has had a lot of trouble walking and in the last few weeks it has gotten worse. She does have a small round red mark on the sole of her right foot and lately she has been screaming every time we put her into the crib. When I say scream, I mean SCREAM! She screams like she is being murdered. That started on Monday. Because we have concrete floors that are nasty and unfinished, we always put shoes on her. There would be no way for her to get a puncture mark in the bottom of her foot. I just noticed the mark yesterday, but could it be likely that she got bit? She doesn’t seem to have any of the symptoms of a bite, like swelling, nausea (even though she really isn’t eating much) excess saliva or foaming at the mouth. If you’re interested in reading about what she is going through (it has totally drained me) you can read about it on LovingSimone.com. Anyway, I don’t *think* she got bit, but I do wonder now if it’s possible. They say it causes extreme pain and numbness, but in children it can be very serious. All last week she had a fever of 102.3 but no symptoms of a cold. When I took her to the doctor he said it was probably a virus. It could have been that, but with a viral or bacterial infection, other symptoms are bound to show up. She never developed any other symptoms.

It has been a very trying two-three weeks. My head is spinning and I barely have a few moments to myself. My computer time has been cut down to a few moments here and there and mostly at night, but by 8:30pm I am totally exhausted. My writing has suffered, and I feel so disconnected from my online world. The simple pleasures that seem to help me through the day is the weather here. Every morning when I wake up, I hear the sound of hundreds of birds singing. The air is cool and pleasant and there is usually a beautiful breeze that blows through the house. The light here is amazing. We are entering monsoon season due to hurricane season in Mexico. Lately it is either raining every day or every other day. The humidity is also increased during this time of year. It stays relatively cool during the morning to mid afternoon and then it gets very hot until about 7:00pm. After that, it cools back down and we have very pleasant cool evenings. Being outside in the evening is a joy. Seeing the gorgeous colors painted across the sky in hues of purple and pink just make me take a deep breath, clear my head and enjoy the moment. One thing that is a nuisance (beyond scorpions) is the amount of dirt that blows in the windows. Where we live, there always seems to be two times a day when the wind picks up and gusts and sometimes I forget to close all the windows during those times. Oh-My-God, this one time we left the windows open and every room had light covering of dirt on it. Everything was covered with gritty sand; the table, chairs, floor, cabinets, clothing, beds…everything. The dirt is very light also, and when sweeping it up, most of it kicks up into the air only to settle once again on the floor or other house hold object. We have to not just sweep, but we have to use a shop vac depending on the amount of dirt blown in. It really is that bad! It’s the price we pay for living in the desert and NOT having rocks, wood chips or even grass covering the front and back yard. Most of the dirt that comes in is directly from our own yard, so we just deal with needing to clean up all the dirt. Landscaping is a very low priority on our list right now because there are so many needs on the interior.

I am officially a raw foodist again. I went back to eating raw foods on June 17th and it has been wonderful. We are almost done with my raw kitchen and just need a few more items to make it complete. Here is a few pictures of what it looked like before and after:

I also just created a raw website if anyone would like to take a look. I had some time on Sunday to create it, while Dom watched Simmi all day. That was a nice break! Anyway, here’s the site:

www.RavishinglyRaw.com

Bald Beauty of the Day

Forgive My Absence

Please forgive such a long absence from my blog. Much has been going on in our lives and unfortunately my blog has had to take a backseat for a while. A few weeks ago my husband safely arrived here in New Mexico for good and I have been taking it all in! Its been great having him home. The past two weeks have been filled with much insecurity for Simmi and she is finally calming down. Anytime Dom would get up to do something she would freak out and start crying, thinking he was going to leave again. Its been a little nuts here. Of course he is loving every second of it. He’s plunged himself in to the Green Scene here, making connections and looking for work. Yes, he’s unemployed. It was a very difficult decision to have him move out here without a job. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for a few jobs that look very promising. We’ve had issues with Simmi’s health, issues with my health and now, in just a few days Noah and Shoshie will be leaving for the summer to be with their dad.

My hair continues to grow in and its starting to look pretty good. The photo is very deceiving though. Before I took that picture (and others) I applied a cosmetic concealer called DermMatch to my head. I have a good amount of hair that is permanently gone, but this concealer works like a charm making it look like I have a bountiful, full head of hair. I’m still learning how to use it properly, and as my hair continues to grow (and hopefully doesn’t fall out again) I’ll do an even better job at applying it. I highly recommend it for anyone that has thinning hair. I went a little crazy with the stuff though, and put so much on in certain areas that my head looked like I had just come out of coal mine. If I touched it, the dark pigment would rub off on my hands. Right now I need a lot of this stuff to make my hair look decent, and hopefully as it grows in, I’ll require less of it.

My transition back to raw foods will also be coming soon. We figured out a way for me to have tree nuts in the house. In another blog entry, I mentioned that it would be difficult for me to go back to raw foods because of Simmi’s food allergies, but we have found a way around that. On the side of my house, we have a sun room which we will be converting into a raw kitchen. I will be able to prepare raw meals without the possibility of cross contamination or potentially exposing her to tree nuts or seeds she may be allergic to. We don’t bring any type of nut product into the house, so a separate raw kitchen becomes the best way to ensure that we don’t have any problems.

I’m hoping to be back on track and NOT neglecting my blog very soon. I have a lot of catching up to do and so much to say that sometimes my mind just goes blank.

Bald Beauty of the Day

The Grapefruit

The Grapefruit

Written by my son Noah

Pluck! The bright yellow/orange grapefruit fell into my hand.When the outside covering was stripped from the grapefruit a smell of sweet and sour citrus permeated the air. When I opened it, a dazzling pinkish color caught my eye.Its mouth-watering pulp falling down into the water.This pulp was so delicate, that if you touched it, it would most likely burst out with water.

The grapefruit tasted as if it were candy. It was so fresh and fragile that if a baby touched it, a stream of water would spurt out. It tasted like the smell, sweet and sour at the same time. The outside protective skin was just the opposite. It was bitter. Like a cherry that had not yet rippened. Although it tasted foul, it felt smooth with only a few dents in it. On the inside of the grapefruit was the white puffy skin. Just like an orange. This skin felt a little different. It was half smooth and half rough. And before I knew it, the grapefruit had vanished into my mouth.

Tempting Fate

I’m tempting fate once again in my life as I begin to count down the days to when we move to New Mexico and I begin the long journey back to the raw food lifestyle. One of the most interesting things that I learned recently about NM is that only one hour away is The Ann Wigmore Foundation. I didn’t know that it actually existed until I started doing research into the raw food community out there. Eight years ago I spent a month in Puerto Rico studying and being trained in the living foods lifestyle at The Ann Wigmore Institute, but I don’t recall them ever mentioning the Ann Wigmore Foundation in New Mexico…but I was so messed up back then that they could have mentioned it and it just flew right over my head!

I have been dreaming of being raw again, and I can feel it coming ever stronger, pulling me back, tempting and teasing me to just have that one piece of fruit or salad. I don’t dare eat anything raw at this point when I am at home. Let me put it to you this way; if we left a coffee cup out over night that had some coffee, cream and sugar in it, by morning there would be a layer of mold on top! That is how contaminated our home is, so eating raw foods of any kind in this house is something I won’t do.

These are some of my feelings on the raw and living food lifestyle for anyone that has already started their journey or is thinking of transitioning:

In the raw world you will get many opinions, claims and “facts.” But the raw and living food diet is not a “one size fits all” diet. Before jumping in to it you must know your own body, what you need personally as far as nutrients are concerned, and how best to utilize this diet to get the optimal results…longevity, clarity and physical and emotional balance.

Some will say “only eat organic”, but how demineralized is the soil that the fruits and vegetables are grown in? This is a very important question when considering the raw food lifestyle. Are you going to be aware of where your food is grown? Will you be in touch with the local farmer to find out if his soil is mineralized? If the soil is depleted, those rawfoods do not carry all the minerals our bodies need to be vibrant and healthy.  Where does our food come from? These are the questions to ask ourselves when embarking on the raw food journey. If you’re not willing to do the homework, discover what is best for your body, and just shove nuts down your throat because they are the fastest way to end hunger or out of some sort of “fear” that you aren’t getting enough protein, then you are better off taking a very slow transition into raw foods until you get your priorities in order.
I haven’t met many successful rawfoodist, NOT because the raw food lifestyle doesn’t work, but because these people weren’t thinking for themselves about how their body worked or what their body needed. They held tight to ideology and dogma and refused to listen to the wisdom of their own bodies screaming out.
I have seen them hoovering over lovingly prepared meals at raw food potlucks and get togethers, gobbling everything up in site without properly chewing the food or taking moderate portions. They gravitated towards heavy nut sauces, nut cheeses, oily treats and gourmet raw foods. Salads were often left untouched as well as fresh fruit displays unless there was some sort of heavy dipping sauce to compliment it. Although their diet had changed, their core eating habits had not.

We can grapple over what to eat and what not to eat, but there is so much more to being raw than just food. It is a way of life, a way of being. We can rush into it unconsciously and make the same mistakes we did when we ate a regular conventional diet and end up even more unhealthy then when we first started.

Educate yourselves first on all things raw, and understand the commitment that is involved. Be honest about what you are walking away from and what you are now embracing and be incredibly gentle with yourself, taking your time to transition slowly.
If you are suffering from a bad detox because you went “balls to the wall” full force into the raw food diet, cut back on the amount of fruits your are taking in and switch to green drinks and more dark green leafy foods. Raw nuts can help to slow down the effects of a detox, but make sure you know where your nuts are coming from. Nuts will be more readily digestible if they are soaked and sprouted first, and then blended and strained. And everything should be done ultimately in moderation.

For myself, I walked away from the raw food lifestyle a few years ago when I thought it was causing the health problems I currently have. I have been doing research and planning the time when I can safely return back to the raw food lifestyle. It takes time to plan and to also “undo” many of the habits that I have allowed to take over in my life. I look forward to a time very soon when I can transition according to my own body’s needs with commitment not only to the lifestyle but to myself as well, because the results that I have had being raw can not compare with any other time in my life.

My Long Journey Back to the Raw Lifestyle

For a few years I was “Ravishingly Raw” bringing myself back from the brink of ruin physically. I was one of those unlucky people that was struck with Lupus. My sister and I both got struck with it in the same month of the same year only hers was severe and mine was mild in comparison. I was also unlucky enough for the ANA blood test to show a very low presence of anything auto-immune, but it had the Rheumatologist baffled. I had tremors, then lost some of my ability to walk and I was so embarrassed by the fact that as a result I was also incontinent. I was tested for everything under the sun neurological, but in the end I was given a diagnoses of fibromyalgia and Lupus. The doctor explained to me that in some people, Lupus can actually not show up on a blood test, but because I also had a family history of it, that he gave me a diagnosis of both. It was quite strange having both, and he explained both of them to me, and differences between the two different disorders. I was given an extremely high dose of prednisone, and I was told that the prednisone was for the Lupus and it would not help with the fibromyalgia. So double the pain, until the day when my legs started getting numb and feeling really heavy. Then I didn’t feel any pain at all in them. I also had a hard time moving them…the pain was gone, but so was all feeling from the waist down.

After a year of dealing with the medications and the fact that there was no cure for either disorder, I decided to slowly transition to a raw food diet. I started by taking out things that I really didn’t care for anyway, and then started removing other kinds of cooked and processed foods from my diet.

During the transition to the raw diet, I didn’t notice any thing changing in my body or feel any better. But! when I finally took the leap to a raw food diet, within six weeks I lost sixty pounds and felt better than I ever felt in long time. I maintained it for another few years until I started getting tremors again. Being raw, I sent the Lupus into remission for a few years. At the time I didn’t know there were other “triggers” for bringing Lupus out of remission. When my hair started falling out, I thought it was due to my diet and I felt defeated thinking that maybe the raw foods had nothing to do with me getting better and that my diet was making me malnourished. But that wasn’t the case! I wouldn’t find out for another year and a half that I had become very allergic to mold. (That is a good story for another time.) It was at that time that the doctor told me that it was actually the mold allergy that is a trigger for my Lupus. He wanted to pump me full of steroids again and I let him, much to my horror, that course of prednisone brought on drug induced Cushings Disease. Fun huh?

So now that I am moving to New Mexico I am planning on transitioning back to a raw lifestyle. What that will look like is any one’s guess! It is supposed to be very dry in NM (not the place I dreamed of being, by the way!) and if there is no more humidity and mold spores to occupy my airspace, I may be able to take a bash at being raw again.

This blog entry was an introductory of sorts to bring everyone up to speed on what my journey has been to this point, and the rest of my postings will be my journey forward…my struggles and my victories. I will also be posting recipes and my “take” on the raw food lifestyle.