Wow, I just typed up a long post explaining where I've been and what I've been up to the past year...and my computer crashed! So I will rehash everything...
I have completely changed my life in the past year. I moved to Vermont after months and months of feeling like I was on the wrong path in Los Angeles. My family is here in VT and my main goal when deciding to move here was to get a job at my local Humane Society shelter. It is something I've been passionate about for years, and I while I was able to volunteer with rescue groups in LA, I could never have afforded to live on shelter wages in such an expensive place. I was basically sacrificing doing what I felt I was meant to do, and working at a meaningless and unfulfilling job, just to live in a place I thought would be "cool." Well it was cool, for a year. And then I was done with it! So my cats and I trekked across the country in my Jeep (they are awesome furbabies and did amazingly well- I am proud of how adjustable they are as long as they have their momma and each other!). When I got back to VT I actually had time to think about how slim my chances were for getting my dream job. First of all, the shelter almost never hires new people. Second of all, I don't have any experience! But I put those thoughts aside. And on the very first day of my job search, I discovered that my local shelter was hiring! From that day on I put every ounce of energy I had into getting that job. It took three interviews and nearly a month for them to decide b/c they had over a hundred candidates. At times I thought about how disappointed I would be if I got my hopes up, and then didn't get the job and had to take another job I didn't care about. But I put all those thoughts out of my mind. I visualized myself at the shelter working. I sent positive energy to the people I interviewed with. And nearly a month after I applied, I got my dream job!
I work hard every day. It is almost completely physical labor. We are overrun with animals. Many have been neglected, some have been abused. Almost all the dogs we have right now have serious behavioral problems. I cry often and feel hopeless about the state of animal welfare much of the time. But I love it and I would not want to do anything else. My life is full of deserving, wonderful animals who need love and good homes. I have dedicated my life to caring for them and finding them happy and healthy forever homes. Sometimes I can't believe I am actually doing what I dreamed about doing for so many years. This is just the start of it. I plan on fighting for animal rights and welfare for the rest of my life.
As far as raw food goes, I was raw for about 2 months after my last post. But due to many things, I slowly began eating cooked vegan food again. I lost a lot of weight on raw, especially after being attacked while out running in the early morning and suffering a major concussion and other injuries. When I recovered from that I began marathon training, and I believed I needed breads and cooked carbs for my running. Looking back, I really wish I had stayed raw. I did not "need" cooked food if I wanted to gain weight- I just needed my body to heal and my appetite to come back. I did not "need" grains and processed foods to run my best- I probably would have run even better eating a raw 811 diet! It is difficult for me to face how addicted I must have been to certain foods. I guess we all are at some points in our lives. At any rate, I have been led back onto the raw path and have been eating raw for a little over a week- 100% for the past 2 days, thanks to replacing my old cooked hummus with raw guacamole. Coming back to raw feels like coming back home after a long, difficult journey. It is so comforting and feels so peaceful and right for my body. I can't predict the future, but I can say with certainty that I am going to try my hardest to really think before I make future decisions about my diet, because I want to be a raw vegan for the rest of my life.
I missed blogging, even though I was never that dedicated to it. I plan on keeping up here much more often, posting my daily menus, exercise, thoughts, food pics if I ever get a camera...that kind of thing. So, to kick off the first of hopefully many raw days, here's what I ate today:
-banana
-green smoothie w/ 2 bananas, clementine, pineapple, kale; lara bar
-banana, 1 raw energy bite
-green smoothie w/ 2 bananas, frozen mango, strawberries & blueberries, kale
-tasted the raw guacamole I made w/ some carrots to dip
*ran 3.5 miles at an easy pace*
-apple before dinner if needed, then dinner will be a big salad w/ mesclun greens (isn't that also a drug?), romaine, carrots, red pepper, red onion, tomato and vinegar
-apple and/or clementines after dinner
I am going to keep fat under 20% with the goal to eventually follow 811 again. Today's food adds up to about 1300 calories and about 19% fat. I seem to go pretty low on calories when I'm eating raw, but those green smoothies really satiate me! I'm just listening to my body at this point. On a day like today, when I was off from work, I'm not constantly moving/walking so I'm usually not that hungry anyway.
That's all for now! Go eat some fruit ;-)
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