Tom’s Raw Foods Blog

Well, days 2 through 4 went… well, they went…

I did let the alarm go off at 4:10 each morning, but on Tuesday — when I did not have a good reason to get out of bed — I did turn over and go back to sleep.

It came at a price, though.

I slept too long and laid in bed too long, and as a result, I’ve had a sore muscle in my neck all week that I can’t quite seem to get rid of. Unlike the old days, when I’d pop a few Ibuprofen to get it to relax, I can’t do that now (why voluntarily put chemicals in my body when I’ve worked so hard to clean it out?). Thankfully, it doesn’t hurt as bad as it has in the past. Some stretching and exposure to warm sunshine (which we’ve thankfully had the past couple of days), plus a warm sweater while sitting in the air conditioned office, is helping me manage it.

I did get up at the appointed time yesterday and today, but it wasn’t easy. The only reason I did it was because I had to go to work. One problem is that I took a nap on Tuesday, which meant that I didn’t sleep well at all Tuesday night. While I slept good last night (and got a bit over 7 hours of sleep), I still felt tired this morning, probably because of the lack of sleep and disruption of sleep patterns the day before.

I have to get up at 2:00 AM tomorrow morning for a trip, which will mean a few days of sleeping with the family, which makes getting up super early a real challenge…

So in light of all this, I’m calling off this attempt at a consistent wake-up time. I’ll start again on Monday morning. My family will be staying at my mother-in-law’s house for two weeks or so, which means that I’ll have the house to myself for at least 10 days or so. That should be plenty long enough for me to establish the habit.

I’m also going to try to find a way to get the family more involved with this. I’m pretty sure that I can sell them on a 9:00 PM bedtime (that, of course, is just a goal); the kids have been going to bed by then, too, which does make the house quieter. Perhaps earplugs would work if they are still awake when I go to bed?

(They are small children; a five year old boy and a two year old girl. They are well-behaved, but I don’t expect them to act like miniature adults, so some noise is expected and accepted.)

So we’ll start over again on Monday, get 10 days or so under my belt, and see where it leads.

Smacznego (and “dobranoc”, or “good night”),
Tom

My alarm went off at 4:10 AM. I turned it off, sat up for a minute, laid back down, and went back to sleep until 6:50 AM.

So much for a roaring start, eh?

I went to bed in plenty of time (and plenty tired) to get eight hours of sleep last night, but between the kids playing outside, a normal but noisy bath time, and wanting to spend some time talking to my wife after she went to bed, I didn’t get nearly eight hours of sleep. Add a bit of a sore throat to the mix (plus some gentle encouragement from my wife, who told me that I looked tired and should sleep in) and I decided to not get up this morning.

Tomorrow morning awaits. And, of course, I have to try.

Today wasn’t the best day either from a raw foods standpoint. I forgot to go over to the local farm store and buy apples. I have tons of bananas, one orange, some nectarines, two strawberries from the garden (the baby stole all the raspberries), maybe a pound of grapes in the fridge, and that’s about it. I did get some “baby romaine” today, along with some more celery, to go with the half cucumber and handful of cherry tomatoes in the fridge. Oh, forgot about the bell peppers; they always seem to be in abundance.

So combine the relative lack of variety with one of those days when “nothing looked good” and it wasn’t an easy day today. Normally I can always find something that satisfies my appetite, but not today. What do you do then? You can only eat so many bananas…

So I’m not going to eat anything for the rest of the day and start over again in the morning. Which comes at 4:10 AM for me. And that’s a good thing; I’m glad that our days are so short and that it’s easy to focus on the Now and not dwell on the less than optimal days. Or at least if you’ve learned to forgive yourself (which can be a difficult thing to do).

Stay encouraged. I wrote this post because I do want to be honest (I’m not one of those “raw at all costs” kind of people and want to show at least some transparency), but know that I’ll wake up tomorrow and it will be Now and that the choices I make Now will make that Now even better than this Now is.

If the above doesn’t make sense… Basically, the only time we have is Now; all other time is simply an illusion. So take care of Now and all will be well. And by taking care of Now in the Now instead of worrying about it (worry is pointless if Now is the only time you can take care of worries — you can either worry NOw or take action Now, but not both), it’s easy to stay encouraged.

See you when the Now that awaits us tomorrow is called Now.

Smacznego,
Tom