Checking in with Rules and Regs!

Wow-Fall is definitely in the air! Our last day of August brought us snow capped mountains in Glacier Park and a chilly rain in the valley-yikes! The days have been reaching a high of 70 degrees, but not for long in between the cool mornings and evenings. More rain right now. I do hope we get our usual gorgeous Indian summer.
I have been feeling a little bit funky monkey lately, just not feeling like my uber-champion self! I don't feel like my diet and daily practices are serving me to my highest potential. I have still been eating mostly raw (green smoothies, salads, anything with cucumbers :) ), but I have also been pretty lax. After 8 months of not having any beer, wine, or alcohol at all, I enjoyed a glass of red wine on the airplane coming home from Bali and felt totally happy and content about it.
That opened rule has gradually lead to more frequent glasses of wine and beer, and even a few late night buzzed up snack sessions (since when do I eat sweet bread and graham crackers?!)
After traveling in Guatemala, my mind felt more open to food beyond raw. I simply felt grateful to have enough food to eat to be in good health. Needless to say, I was still loving eating mostly raw. Then, I had a tortilla chip, then a cracker, then a little cheese...
I do really well with rules, guidelines, goals. I love having something I am working towards to motivate my daily actions. Besides a few days of mind struggle in the beginning and mid-way through my Juice Feast, it was pretty easy for me to be on all liquids. That was the protocol, I had already made the decision for what I was going to do and it was easier to keep up than to change my new daily rituals. For me, at this time, I think I still need a general focus to be making my decisions from...
For a little while, I'm going to focus on this and see where it leads me:

• 2 quarts of green smoothie or green juice (the cukes have been great in my smoothies!)
• snack of fresh, raw fruit or veggie if desired (the local watermelon has been amazing!)
• one reasonable yummy meal (or another juice or smoothie)
• stay atleast 80% raw
• drink lots of water and tea
• no tortilla chips!

I like the idea of not trying to be 100% raw right now. It gives me a little lee-way, an ease. Although rules and discipline serve me, I'm not sure if 100% rules do. I feel totally great about eating applesauce that I have canned with love from the tree in our yard. I'm not worried about eating toasted Nori sheets. But I do need to lasso in my appetite a bit, cowgirl! My tummy has been feeling a bit bloated and uncomfortable and I just can't feel my true self as clearly this way...which has been leading me to a bit of introspection...what is it that I haven't been wanting to feel? Perhaps I'll share more on that later.
Another thing that has been interesting is my menstrual cycle. Since I had become slimmer with my cleansing, my periods became really irregular. This is common for me and I had experienced it a lot with low body fat in college from playing so much soccer. This year, I have had 2 periods that had a 2.5 month gap in between and 2 with a 1.5 month gap in between. Now that I have gained a few pounds back, I had my 1st regular period in atleast 9 months. It's definitely something to be aware of since we do want to have a baby some day, if my husband ever stops giggling nervously every time we talk about it! A friend of mine who is pregnant (what's up girl!) told me her husband did the same thing, and recommended I talk about the sexcapades during ovulation more often!
On that note, I'll bid you a farewell for the evening-hee hee! What's up with you all out there in this gloriously dynamic Universe? XOXO, Kelly O