Taking the wilted sprigs out of the bag, I cut the ends off with a sharp knife. Don’t use scissors for this. They will crush the stems. Then I stuck the whole thing in a jar of purified water.

It looked pretty sad and I was wondering if I should write it off as a loss and discard it. I decided to give it a chance, though. I was glad I did because here’s what it looked like a few hours later:

Now, I’m not saying that the nutritional value was as much as when it was freshly picked but it made it salvageable. This will also work with salad greens and tougher greens like collards and kale. If the water is hot (not so hot you can’t put your hand in it) it works even more quickly.

While fresh produce should be used as soon as possible for maximum value, it isn’t always possible. Keep this in mind for your next emergency resuscitation.

This week’s Bible study (in my circle known as the Sabbath School lesson) is about Water of Life. Now, for the Christian, this would mean Jesus. He’s the Living Water. However, this quarter’s lessons are all about Health and Healing. The lesson starts out with the woman at the well and Jesus asking her for a drink. Then it starts into the Living Water, water for baptism, and other applications for water, the primary one being hydration through drinking.

Every morning, I listen to part of the discussion on Pine Knoll. Sure enough, someone brought up the need for drinking eight 8 oz. glasses of water per day.

Now, the formula for how much water comes from where? I have no idea and I don’t think anyone else really does. There’s conjecture that it might have originated with a nutritionist by the name of Frederick J. Stare but I believe it was around before his time. He said, in what seems to be a casual statement, it could be in any form, too, including coffee, tea, and beer. I’m not a beer drinker and I haven’t had any caffeinated beverages since October 17, 2001. I can remember that date because the first day (the 18^th) I went completely without and stayed that way was the day my second granddaughter was born.

On Ted Allen’s Food Detectives on the Food Network, there was an episode that dealt with the how much water question. Ted contends that the moisture in the food we eat should figure into the total intake. At one time, I wouldn’t have concurred but now I tend to agree. In the Food Detectives’ lab, the tech took several meals all the way from pizza to hamburger and fries to spaghetti and salad. The food items were weighed and then put into dehydrators until they were thoroughly dried out. Then they were weighed again. It was pretty amazing how much water was in a piece of pizza. However, not many of us would have the patience to do something like this to calculate how much we’d need to make up the difference.

I’m convinced of one thing. The belief that we need to drink copious amounts of water all through the day is based on people eating the Standard American Diet. Cooked food is robbed of its moisture. Try it for yourself if you don’t believe me. Take a sackful of spinach and steam it. You don’t have to boil it. Just steam it briefly. What happens? The cells are ruptured and the water comes out. The sackful becomes a little green mass in the bottom of the steamer. Many times, the leftover “liquor” is discarded along with most of the vitamins. A smart person doesn’t do away with it but either incorporates it into the meal or drinks it on the sly.

Personally, I like to get most of my water in the food I eat. Other than consuming enough calories of raw food, I will drink 16 ozzies in the morning plus another 16 in my smoothies. If I get more than that, I spend more time than usual in the bathroom.

Which brings me to the best way to tell if you are getting enough water. This is also brought out in the Sabbath School Lesson. I quote,

The appropriate amount of water intake depends upon multiple factors, such as temperature, body size, and kidney function but it should be sufficient to result in pale or clear urine in normal circumstances.

In conclusion, here’s my advice. Don’t agonize about the amount of water you drink/don’t drink. Eat lots of juicy fresh raw food/less cooked and take note of what is in the commode. If there is much color to it at all that doesn’t come from another source such as medication, drink. If you’re thirsty, drink. If it’s hot, drink. The formula of 8×8 can’t possibly be one size fits all.

Unless a raw vegan already lives in the tropics or has the means to move there, for several months there will be cold weather. Did you know that raw food is so easy to digest it doesn’t raise the body temperature like cooked food does? A raw foodist’s average body temperature is lower, naturally. Someone who eats cooked food runs a mild fever as a result. Therefore, that’s why raw foodists wear warmer clothes and like to have the heat turned up higher. So…our list starts with comfort measures.

Warm socks and warm gloves will keep hands and feet toasty. I’d make sure, first, if the raw vegan is vegan to the point of not wearing animal-related materials. At my age, I have a collection of wearing apparel that is of every kind of material available.

I’ve heard for years that, if your feet are cold put on a hat. There are all sorts of warm hats available from the pretty to the bizarre. My raw foodist friend wears an attractive knit hat to church that comes down and covers her ears nicely. She has the right idea for keeping comfortable. I’m tempted to find something that doesn’t look dorky on me. The difference between us, though, is that she is gorgeous to begin with and many years younger than me. She’s the type who would look good in a feed sack.

These are suggestions for the exposed areas of the body. Let’s get a little more personal. How about some long johns? They come in all sizes, colors and temperature ranges. I can wear long johns and still be dressed up because I’m hiding them with a full-length skirt.

Now we’ll get on to other things. Blankets and throws are nice to cuddle up in during the cold months. Beware of the “As seen on TV” Snuggie, though. I a blue one and took it back. The material was thin, the workmanship poor and the book light didn’t work. The Snuggie wasn’t as large as I had been led to believe and it was impossible to walk with it on. Save your money on that one. I returned it. I haven’t had the “luxury” model so it might be a different story but I’ll never know. I’m through with the Snuggies.

You’d think there’s nothing in the cookware department that could interest a raw vegan. Think again. Crockpots, bean pots and teakettles are all great to humidify the dry heated wintertime air. The latter two work better with a wood stove because it’s dangerous to leave a range on all the time. I used to have a soapstone bean pot that I kept filled with water to put moisture back into the air and it was wonderful.

Another way to make the indoor air better is with a salt lamp. My personal favorites are the bowls and baskets but any of them look amazing. Of course, this is coming from a salt addict.

Navitas has a full line of high-quality nuts, seeds, berries and other items that almost any raw vegan would enjoy. I say almost because there are those of us who don’t go for the maca and cacao but there are others who do. Some of the products are available on a subscription basis so it could be a gift that keeps on giving throughout the coming year.

There are other edibles that can be had on subscription, too, like raw organic agave nectar. The price drops and the shipping is free. A good deal all the way around as well as being a welcome gift.

I love my bamboo cutting board. It’s beautiful and functional. I’ve only heard of ceramic knives but they are supposed to be the best to keep from altering flavors. A little pricey but very nice.

If you want to go for broke, a VitaMix is a good addition to any raw food kitchen. A juicer isn’t essential to my kitchen but it’s nice to have for those occasions when I think I need it, maybe twice a year. Another non-essential that’s nice to have is a good dehydrator. I’ve been tempted to get one of these Excalibur models but I haven’t felt justified in taking the plunge.

Now, I’ll tell you about three special gifts I’ve gotten in years past. Two were gift cards/certificates to supermarkets. One was the university supermarket. The other was to the organic grocery. Then, last year, merm and DD gave me a year with Amazon Prime. The first two are no-brainers. The last one was something I thought I wouldn’t really get that much use out of but let me tell you—it’s been one of the best presents I’ve ever received. The only thing that’s beat it was the blog and forum redesign they gave me a couple of Christmases back. But let me tell you about Amazon Prime. I’d thought as long as I got together an order of at least $25, I was okay. I had free shipping and so what if I had to wait a week or two to get whatever it was I’d ordered? With Amazon Prime, I get free shipping on anything I order directly from Amazon. It doesn’t apply to third party purchases but most of what I get is from Amazon, anyway. So what if it doesn’t total $25? Still, the shipping is free. No matter the price, the shipping is cut to two days. No more waiting and waiting and checking tracking to see when I’ll get it. I haven’t sat down and figured up whether or not I’ve gotten all the value out of it but I’ll tell you this…I’m gonna miss it when it’s gone. My membership expires on the 19th. I’ve already checked. I’ll be back to waiting until I get $25 rung up and waiting until the package rolls a couple of weeks later.

I hope I’ve given you some ideas for gifts for the raw foodists in your life. I’d like to hear other suggestions, too. Drop me a line or leave me a comment with your thoughts. And I do hope that everyone will have a very Merry Christmas!

After I’d ordered it (and signed up for a subscription for it to be shipped regularly) my forum friend, Shari, told me I could get it for a whole lot less. Always one for a bargain, I was disappointed I had jumped at the first chance to get really truly organic seed. Seems there are lots of sites that sell organic seeds and many of them for less.

I went back to Amazon to cancel my order. No way to do that. I had waited too long and it was already on its way. As a matter of fact, it got here two days later along with my regular order of agave nectar. I resigned myself to keeping the more expensive chia seeds and opened the package.

As I chronicled in this post, I took a sample to each of the two people I talked to before. One of them started Googling and found chia for less than I had paid on Amazon, provided enough was ordered at once. She and another person each ordered a lub. I had emailed her that I’d go in with them but I guess she got the message after she had already clicked “submit”.

I took the plunge and ordered five lubs. That way, even though there was shipping tacked on, the price was low enough that I felt justified getting that much. I was hooked on adding chia to my blended soup in the evening.

Well, shoot! The company was out of chia so I kept using the more expensive stuff. At least I had that. The others didn’t have anything after they used up the sample.

Finally, the notice came that my chia was shipping and should be in soon. I was so glad because I was getting low enough I was starting to be nervous. Sure enough, it came in priority mail.

There were five individual heavy zip bags of one lub each in a large heavy zip bag. It was very well packaged. It wasn’t as pretty as what I was used to and the seeds appeared to be smaller. When I mentioned that to one of the other people, she didn’t think so. I compared them with what I had left and I had to admit she was probably right. I didn’t have a scale capable of weighing a single seed so I had to depend on eyeballing it. I kept four packages and gave one to my friend in the nursing home.

Now, I mix chia with food and eat it. My nursing home friend likes to mix hers with Cream of Wheat at breakfast. The others throw them in their mouths and wash them down with water. I objected and told them they are missing a lot of the experience of eating chia. One said she doesn’t like the way they stick in her teeth and, besides, they don’t have any flavor of their own. True, but the “tapioca” like texture is missing when they aren’t used in food. Seems it was lost on her. And then I found out why.

I ran out of the Navitas chia and opened my first bag of generic. That was where my mistake came in. If I had never ordered the Navitas Naturals, I would have never known the difference. Maybe Shari has never had high quality chia and that’s why she is happy with cheaper. When I think of mixing chia with liquid, I like to think it “blooms”. The resulting gel that surrounds each seed on the Navitas is much larger and firmer than what is on the generic. At least I think it is. Maybe it’s my imagination, but I do believe there is a difference. It’s enough that I won’t cancel my subscription.

Several days after our generic came in, I got a call. “What’s the difference between chia and Salba?” I misunderstood and said, “Chia IS salvia.” To be perfectly correct, chia is Salvia hispanica L. The caller said, “There’s an article in the paper about how good Salba is and it’s better than chia.” I’d never heard of Salba so I started searching. What I found is, Salba is also Salvia hispanica L. The difference is the price. It is considerably more than the Navitas which is a little more than the generic once the shipping is factored in. If I were more curious than I am at present, I would order a jar of Salba to see if there is any difference in quality but I’m afraid to. I’ve already been spoiled by Navitas Naturals. I don’t need to be spoiled by Salba.

You can Google it and find all sorts of information so I’m not going to give you a research paper. My intention is to tell you what I know about it firsthand.

I’d bought some seed years ago and had no idea how to use it. It eventually got bugs in it and I threw it away. Then I bought some more a couple of years later. It was a tiny amount I got at the organic market—tiny because it was so horribly expensive. I still didn’t know what to do with it and I don’t even know where it is. It’s been so long, even with its long shelf-life, it’s probably gone bad. Up pops Shari with the news that she bought 50 lubs of the stuff. Well, if it was that good, I’d have to try it again. I was on Amazon checking on my subscription for agave nectar when the picture of a packet of chia seed caught my eye. Compared to what I’d paid before, it seemed to be a very reasonable price so I ordered it on a subscription basis. The beauty of that is it comes with free shipping, a cheaper price, and I can opt out any time.

It wasn’t long at all until the package arrived. I emailed Shari for ideas and told her I’d read that it needed to be soaked in purified water at a 9:1 ratio. She emailed back that that sounded “whack”. She likes to mix it to a consistency of bread pudding. I might add here that she had once commented it reminded her of tapioca. That sounded good to me because I always loved “frog eggs”. She didn’t have time to send me any recipes so I was pretty much on my own for my first venture into Chia-dom.

There was some information, nutritional and otherwise, on the package.

When the package is empty, I’ll try to remember to scan it so the back can be read but it would be hard to make it legible in a picture.

The seeds themselves look like little bugs but, up close and enlarged, they resemble tiny beans.

I followed the instructions I’d read on the WWW except I used an 8:1 ratio. As I slowly added the seed, I whisked the water briskly with a fork. One thing you definitely don’t want is a clump of seed. Each seed should be surrounded by water.

After five minutes of sitting, I stirred it again. Another 10 minutes and here’s what it looked like. See the gel that has formed? That’s supposed to be good for mixing with food for diabetics because it coats the food and slows the absorption of sugars. At least that’s what I read. I can’t vouch for it since I’m not a diabetic.

I’ve tried it in my tomato/mango soup two different ways. With this batch, I added the seed directly to the already blended soup using the lowest speed so it simply stirred it in and didn’t break it up.

I also tried it with the seed mixed with purified water. I really couldn’t tell the difference between the two and adding it directly is easier. Oh! I did find out why it’s stressed that purified water should be used. Chia seed doesn’t have any taste of its own and if it picks up an “off” taste from water, that will be transferred to the food it’s mixed with.

I sprinkled some on my salad yesterday, too, and it was okay but I like it in the soup better.

There are a few people at work who aren’t afraid to try new things. I took three of them tablespoon samples. One of them still hasn’t tried it, another mixed it with a container of yogurt and pronounced it “cool” and the third sprinkled some on her salad and cottage cheese. I had her put a pinch in the liquid part of the cottage cheese and it wasn’t long until it looked like it had curds in it, too. She was fascinated.

Some of my experiments turned out better than others. Today, I decided I would use it to extend my Matt’s Dip. I love to put it on my salad but I get overly enthusiastic with it and use too much. I figured with the chia seed, I’d eat less of the dip and get more nutrition at the same time. I mixed the seed with water like I did before and blended the ingredients for the dip/dressing. It was thicker than I had thought it would be and I had meant to make it runnier so the chia seed would thicken it. I went ahead with the next step. I put about a cup of the chia mixture in with the dip and ran the blender on low until it was stirred in and lo! it made it thin and runny! I don’t know how much I put on my salad because it kept running off and sinking to the bottom. I don’t know if the lemon caused it or what but I won’t try that again. Before I put the rest away, I blended in some of the plain seed and it was thickening so maybe it wasn’t the lemon.

There are sites out there that will tell you that chia seed is the best food on the planet and while that may be true, most say there are absolutely no side effects. However, if you do a search on chia seed side effects or chia seed dangers, you will find that there are some caveats. One is that it is high in B-17. That’s good but if someone is taking B-17, they can overdose if they add too much chia. Then, large quantities of chia seed can cause a drop in blood pressure. People on anti-coagulant therapy should avoid them because they can increase the risk of bleeding. I also read that heart patients shouldn’t eat them because they can be addictive. Now, that is puzzling to me. If they are addictive, wouldn’t they be addictive for anyone and not just heart patients?

Many recipes have them mixed with fruit but I’m not so sure that’s a good combination. Fat and protein shouldn’t be mixed with fruit and chia seed has both. I’ll have to think on that and do some more reading before I put them in my smoothies. In the meantime, they make a killer cup o’ soup!

There are lots of things in its favor. First and foremost (to me) is the fact that it’s an ebook. When it’s purchased, a link is sent for the pdf file and it can be almost instantly downloaded, depending on your connection. At 5.7 MB, it’s easily doable even on dialup. In this day and time of instant gratification, getting this on your computer easily qualifies.

There’s something else about an ebook. It can be searched just like the WWW can be Googled. Put in a word you want to find—let’s say zucchini—and there you go! It makes it simple to find a recipe that uses the ingredients you have available. That, to me, is what beats a physical book with paper hands down.

But, you say, you aren’t talking about the book, itself. Wait! I’m getting to that. First, as I said, it’s geared to kids, say 7-12. I don’t have kids. My youngest is 31 and I have one grandchild that falls into the range but I eat more raw food in a day than she does in a month. Or maybe I should say three weeks. But, remember, I’m a kid at heart and I love this book. I don’t think being a kid’s book should keep the adults from buying it and using it. Even if you aren’t gung-ho into raw food, this is a good way to get more fruit and veggies into your kid’s (and your own) day.

It has some very good tips about equipping a raw kitchen and a glossary that explains preparation terms. Some of us are old pros in the kitchen but some are just starting out. Think back to your cooked food days…Did you cook everything from scratch or did you open boxes, cans and jars? Maybe you need a refresher using the everyday items in your cupboards and drawers. There’s even a page of fairly bad kitchen riddles that will inspire you to think up your own. They are just bad enough to be funny.

How are your knife skills? Do they need some honing? (See, I can make bad jokes, too.) This book explains, in detail, how to use a chef’s knife. It also teaches safety. No running with knives and no holding one by the blade! It also cautions the young ones (take note, older ones, too) to be careful and not try to be like the chefs on TV who chop things very fast. I like to try and I’m getting better at it but I’m still careful, Joanne.

Something that would warm every mother’s heart is to have her son or daughter fix her breakfast in bed—or the man in the family could do it, too (hint, hint). Pull Monkey Mike up on the computer and there are step by step instructions on how to do it and be a great success.

There is a memory game and a word search besides recipes. My sister excels at memory games and I have always enjoyed a good word search. They’re placed at random and aren’t included in the Table of Contents.

Speaking of said Table, here’s what it consists of:

Introduction

Smoothies, Milkshakes, & Juices

Salads & Dressings

Sweet Snacks

Savory Snacks

Desserts & Puddings

Recipe Worksheets

Index

A complete set of resources for the budding (or veteran) raw vegan, I’d say. The index could prove invaluable if you print the book off and put it in a binder. There are 144 pages and that could take a good bit of ink so I would suggest storing it on your computer and make a backup in case everything goes belly up.

There are optimal recipes and some that I would say save for a special occasion and don’t make it a practice to eat them every day. We are all entitled to a splurge now and then and those would be splurge-ful (is that a word?). They go from simple to more involved. Cantaloupe Cruiser has one ingredient, Merry Berry Milkshake has seven. Most have maybe four (and that includes water). I did notice that Joanne has honey listed in at least one recipe. If you want to get technical, honey isn’t vegan but agave nectar is a good substitute.

Not many un-cookbooks make it into my house. I tend to stick with the old tried and trues and not get too adventurous. This one is different, though. Enough different that I’m going to stay in my childhood long enough to use it.

Actually, the answer is quite easy. There’s a big debate going on in some of the Christian communities about which Bible translation is best. I was listening to Jonathan Gallagher on PineKnoll give the shortest, simplest and most logical answer I’ve ever heard. “It’s the one you read.” With a bit of tweaking, the same thing can be applied to exercise. “It’s the one you DO.”

You can have the best and most equipment in the world but if you let it gather dust or turn it into a clothes rack, it doesn’t benefit you at all. Gym memberships are sold by the thousands but does everyone who has one make it a habit to go work out? No. There is a myriad of excuses reasons why not but a lot boil down to either a lack of commitment or a lack of time. That’s why I favor doing what is easiest for me.

I’m going to go through some of the equipment that’s available to all of us. I’ll start with the least expensive and go to the most. It won’t be comprehensive by any means, but you might be able to pinpoint something that will work for you.

Totally Free
First, if you have a high speed Internet connection, there are plenty of exercise videos online. Check out Exercise TV or that old standby, YouTube. Google “online exercise” and you’ll find lots more. Find one that doesn’t use any equipment at all and you aren’t out anything except the time it takes to do it and the flab that will be history.

Walking doesn’t cost anything. Neither does jogging or running. You probably have a good pair of shoes languishing in your closet and, unless you are going to get into it whole hog, they will probably be sufficient. For sure, if you only get to do it intermittently like I do.

Put on a CD with some lively music and dance, dance, dance! Move those arms and legs! Jump and jive! Do it until you are sweating and breathing heavy.

Cheap
How about going to the local discount store and buying a jump rope? Start out slow and easy with this one if you are part of my age group. You don’t want to get tangled up, fall and have to make a trip to the emergency room. That would wipe out any of the savings you realized on equipment and possibly put an end to any kind of exercise for a while. Then there’s the old hula hoop. You can buy the El Cheapos at Wally World or, if you are hardcore into it, go to Amazon to find one that’s made especially for working out. The same goes for jump ropes. You can buy the latter in bulk and get your friends and family involved.

Very Inexpensive
How about an exercise ball? I got one for my height and weight along with a pump for $10 at Wally World. If you are ‘way out in the boonies or on a deserted island somewhere, it’s Amazon to the rescue again. If you have Prime and want it right away, click on the link on the left side of the page that says “Prime Eligible” and you can have it in your hot little hands in two days. Of course, it might take longer to get to the deserted island but for most of us, two days.

Then there are bands. They come in all shapes, sizes and colors, with and without handles.

Heavy Hands are something I’ve looked at for a long time. They can start out fairly cheap and then get into some more serious money. From what I’ve heard, they can go a long way toward toning the arms and shoulders. One person I know uses them while walking.

Want a program that doesn’t cost much and uses no equipment at all? That would be the Lightning Speed Exercise Program my friend and mentor, Roger Haeske, has perfected. I need to get back into it. I can do a lot of that at work with no problem.

Reasonable
Here’s where my old friend, the rebounder, comes in. While I have it in the “reasonable” category, it can cost upwards of over $800 if you get the top of the line. However, some of the less expensive ones are fine. They might not last quite as long but some people like to buy less expensive and then go with a better one. Me, I went with the Cellerciser and I’ve never regretted it. Its price might edge up into the expensive range but, if you saved your change like I did, you can afford it.

All Over the Place
That’s where exercise bikes as well as treadmills are. You can go as low as less than $100 to several thousand.

Like to be in the great outdoors? Maybe a bicycle is the answer. That can get into some money, too, with the helmet, knee pads, elbow pads and general padding I’d have to have to keep from injuring myself.

Something that can go into some bucks is the OmGym. It looks like it would be for someone younger than I am but maybe I’m limiting myself. At any rate, it isn’t something I can afford but I do believe it would be fun.

There are weights and barbells and ab crunchers and ellipticals and on and on and on. My suggestion is, if you want something really badly, find a friend who has what you want and beg, borrow or steal a session and make sure it’s what you really want before you lay out the money.

In the meantime, move!

Just the other day, someone at work asked me about what fruit or veggie is high in protein. As a raw vegan, I don’t worry about what is high in protein, to tell you the truth, so I couldn’t give her a satisfactory answer. I did say that nuts, seeds, beans and corn have an appreciable amount. My statement that all the foods I eat have protein was met with “Yes, but…” “Do you eat beans?” No. Beans have to be cooked. I don’t need to eat beans to get protein.

I’ve been Googling again and here’s how one web site states how we can tell if we are getting enough protein or not:

Here’s the unscientific answer to how much protein we need: Do we look good, feel good, maintain optimum weight, and have good muscle tone? Do our hair and nails grow quickly? Do our wounds heal well? Are we generally healthy, and recover quickly from illness? If so, then we must be getting enough protein!¹

BUT, if what you want is the answer the government gives us, then you might be satisfied with this:

Whatever the calorie level, DRVs for the energy-producing nutrients are always calculated as follows:

fat based on 30 percent of calories

saturated fat based on 10 percent of calories

carbohydrate based on 60 percent of calories

protein based on 10 percent of calories. (The DRV for protein applies only to adults and children over 4. RDIs for protein for special groups have been established.)

fiber based on 11.5 g of fiber per 1,000 calories.²

Now, you can probably guess that I don’t agree with the above “requirements”. By the way, DRV (Daily Reference Values) has replaced RDA (Recommended Daily Allowances) for nutrients.

To begin with, these values are based on a primarily cooked diet. The FDA doesn’t ever publish anything that’s based on anything else.

I eat a diet of raw food: fruit (and that includes non-sweet fruits such as tomatoes, sweet peppers and cucumbers), greens, and some nuts, seeds, avocado and (rarely) olives. Let’s see how much protein I can get in a day. I used Fitday³ to calculate the grams.

If this displays too small, you can click on it to see it full size.

Now, here are the percentages also from Fitday.³

Too small? Once again, CLICK! Clarification—this is a typical day in the life of ME. It isn’t always what I eat but just an example.

I don’t eat nuts every day but if you X them, I still have 35+ grams of protein. That averages out to the same 8% of total calories.

Thanks to Google, I found a site⁴ that let me calculate my protein requirement using my height and gender. There are no doubt others, but this was an easy pick.

Too small? You know what to do.

Now, let’s put two and two together. According to FitDay³, I’m getting over 40 grams of protein in an average day. Put that with the protein requirement on the other site⁴ and I’m right at the upper limit for a 5’3″ female person.

Now, will this or will this not put to rest the worry that I’m not getting enough protein??

1. The Savvy Vegetarian
2. ‘Daily Values’ Encourage Healthy Diet
3. FitDay
4. Daily Protein Requirements and Protein Intake

He was sitting in a lawn chair in the shade of an abandoned fast food restaurant. I went over and repeated my request. “Awww! You wouldn’t want them!” I said there was one this morning that was mostly sound that I could use. He said, “We put those back and what you won’t buy, someone else will.” That kind of took me aback but I wasn’t going to rat the woman out.

I asked if I could look at what he had. He led me over to the truck and there was a box half full of tomatoes in all stages of damage. He said, “You can have ‘em if you want ‘em.” I was willing to pay him a dollar for them but he protested and said to take them on for nothing. Along with the tomatoes, there were a couple of oranges, a corn shuck or two and some banana peels.

He wouldn’t put them on the seat of my car because some of the tomatoes were “leaking”. He insisted on putting them in the trunk. That’s where they rode home.

The oranges had nothing whatsoever wrong with them.

(These are at home and in a box with my juice oranges.)

The woman has told me she likes junk food and he has said he can’t eat grapefruit because he’s on cholesterol medicine. Maybe he can’t eat oranges, either.

I threw the banana peels and corn shucks in the compost bin and went through the tomatoes before I went inside. I ended up with two spinach containers more than full of tomatoes I could salvage.

There was no way I was going to scald the tomatoes to peel them and I wasn’t going to try washing them. I peeled all of them with either a vegetable peeler or a knife. Then I sliced them into a three quart mixing bowl.

On the way down the container, I found the tomato that the lady had rejected and took its picture. It was pretty consistent with the rest of the ones I was able to use.

There was a pepper in the bunch, as well, that was beyond using but it gave me the idea of making salsa to take to work. I’d stopped and bought a jalapeno and some cilantro for just that purpose. I got out my handy dandy Pampered Chef chopper and did in half the tomatoes along with the green one for the salsa. I used it to chop the onion and jalapeno, too. I had to use some red sweet pepper out of the freezer since I didn’t buy one. When I got it mixed up and jarred, I had enough for anyone who wanted to try it. I went by this recipe for the most part.

The rest of the tomatoes I used for my tomato/mango soup.

Tomatoes aren’t cheap this time of year. They are the primary ingredient in both salsa and my soup. My boldness to ask for the tomatoes paid off. Confession: I had told the man I planned to dehydrate them but they ended up being so juicy I didn’t. When and if I have the opportunity, I’ll have to tell him I lied.

It entered my life on March 12 though I didn’t get started on it that night. It wasn’t until the next day I discovered The Joy of Rebounding. From there it progressed to an addiction.

Things I have noticed since then are

1. Better posture
2. Better quality sleep
3. Firmer arms
4. My chest isn’t down around my waist so much
5. Less wrinkly thighs
6. More energy

Let’s take these one at a time.

Better posture
I was taking the outside route from the nursing home to the hospital the other day when I was being observed. I didn’t know it until one of my co-workers slipped me this note while I was on the phone:

No one ever accused me of that before so it was singularly gratifying.

Better quality sleep
I sleep much more soundly and wake feeling more rested than before. Ever since I started eating raw, I’ve had energy to spare but I can tell a difference in the quality even if I haven’t gotten the quantity recommended. I need to work on the latter.

Firmer arms
Since I’m not as filled out as I used to be, my upper arms, especially, have had the appearance of crepe paper. They aren’t perfect yet but it’s amazing they are so far along their way already.

My chest isn’t down around my waist so much
I don’t think I need to get too graphic here. Anyone who has had three babies will know what I’m talking about. It didn’t help to be 70+ lubs overweight at one time, either. Body parts migrate South (unless one has the inclination and resources to correct them surgically) and it’s always winter. Slowly but surely, there’s more distance between my chest and my waist. It may take until I’m 98 but I plan to get there.

Less wrinkly thighs
They have been much worse than my arms and are more easily covered up so no one but me, unless it’s Twinkle, would ever know. Far as I can tell, Twinkle doesn’t give a tiny little rat’s you-know-what.

Anyway, my inner thighs resemble the swags that used to hang above my mother’s drapes. Not so much any more but they still have a long way to go. Let me know if that link ever doesn’t work.

More energy
I couldn’t have stayed up as late for as long as I have been lately. I know I need to mend my licks and get to bed on time consistently but maybe if I would get tired, I’d be more likely to try.

There is one negative I can think of at the moment. I’m developing saddlebags. I used to have them and then I didn’t when I recycled all that fat but they’re coming back. I need to figure out what I’m doing that’s building up that part of my body and stop it. I can’t quit rebounding, though. It’s so much a part of my daily routine, it would be like not buying bananas. To me, that would be unthinkable.

My rebounder is a permanent fixture in my living room. I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s one piece of exercise equipment that hasn’t already become a clothes rack. And for someone like me who despises almost any form of exercising, that’s saying a lot.