I'm going to get the Cuisinart food processor this morning! Today starts the sale--sweet, darling husband reminded me about it. I hope they aren't all gone by the time I get there. The woman said people line up at the door around 8, but they are limited to two, each. I hope there are still some left when I get there a little after 9. What will I use it for, first !

[Edit: I have it!! There were about ten left there, so I guess I didn't need to worry about whether there would be any left at nine. What to make with it, now ! First I need to wash it all down and find a home for it on the counter.]

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The heat and humidity where I'm at is almost unbearable. Today I'll probably just eat a lot of raw food because it's cooling!

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FEELING:

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I absolutely adore young coconuts! When I was in India I was given coconuts to drink from that were taken right from the tree, the top was hacked off with a machete-type knife, and a straw was inserted for me to drink it. Had I known at that time that there was the most delicate coconut pudding left behind after I drank the sweet juice, I would have gotten a spoon (or stick, or anything else that would work!) to scoop it out to eat! Coconuts get a lot of bad rap because of the fat content, but studies show that it doesn't cause anything negative to happen in the human body--in fact, it causes positive changes (including weight loss!).

My daughter prefers the mature coconuts to the young ones, but I think she just hasn't given the young one enough sampling. I'll incorporate it into more dessert-type foods in the future and see if she likes it, then. What she loves about the young coconut, however, is slowly removing the outer white husk to expose the hairy nut inside. She then takes care to strip the hair and has a beautiful coconut cup/bowl left! She worked a lot on her creation last night and says she might beeswax the outer part once she has it completely smooth. She had such fun with it, that I don't mind spending another $2 on one in the near future (I can drink and eat the amazing contents and she can create something from the outer parts).

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Read more: Nuts for Coconuts

The wonderful thing about farm days is that I bring back fresh, locally grown organics. This week there wasn't as much as usual. Here's what we picked up: three carrots, two beets, two onions, small head of lettuce, some green beans, one shallot, two garlic bulbs, one leek, small pack of cherry tomatoes, two bunches of collard greens (I traded two bunches of herbs for these), a cucumber that grew in a spiral that my daughter insisted on having, and blueberries (I bought these for an extra fee). I think that was it this time.

The negative thing about farm days is that if I don't plan ahead we are starving by the time we get home and no one feels like preparing something for dinner. This is what happened last night so we bought a pizza. Once I had almost two slices (I don't eat the crust at the end of each slice), I wanted a soda. I bought a 7-up and my daughter bought candy (which I ate a small amount of). All of that non-healthy food just because we were too hungry to prepare something. I'll try to have something planned and ready for next week, so we don't repeat the same eating again.

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I'm going to phase out soy. After reading a few things about soy not truly being good for the body (except, maybe, the actual edame soy beans), I think I'll slowly use up what we have in the house and not buy any more. Soy can cause the body to create/retain too much mucus and it causes some bloating (my daughter said this is probably what her problem is with gas, but I know for sure her problem is mostly with wheat). I guess I'll just start making almond mylk to take the place of soymilk in our diets. I really need an easy way to get protein when I eat carbs (especially most fruit). I wonder how much protein I can get when I make almond mylk? I don't like eating so many nuts all the time, though. They are heavy in my system. Spirulina is nasty and I don't think it's really all that healthy because it's very easy to get bad batches of it. On top of that, my God, Dr Weil, says it's not worth using. What's left for me to use for protein? Just nuts and seeds, sprouts, and the naturally occurring protein in veggies. I ordered some nut mylk/sprout bags, so maybe I'll start sprouting once they arrive. I'm pretty sure sunflower sprouts are the highest in protein, so maybe I'll try to sprout those, first. I wish I didn't have this hereditary problem with insulin resistance/PCOS, or else I'd just eat a variety of fruits, veggies, and occasional nuts and be the healthiest person possible. I received a write-up from an online acquaintance about what she was prescribed by a naturopath for PCOS-related problems and I'm going to start following some of that (one of which is to get rid of the soy). The text is locked on my broken-down computer, though (I'm using a laptop for my journal updates), so I'll just start with what I remember from the list.

In the book that I'm reading right now, there is a quiz to see how healthy you are and what type of plan you should follow in the book to slowly step up to the next level of health. My little one, of course, is already at the optimum/top level. I was at the second level (at the end of it, ready to move to the third level if I got one more point) and my husband was at the second level with a few points less than me! How could he be there when he eats meat sometimes and eats far too many processed foods ! Anyway, that was nice to see--that we are relatively healthy eating just the way we are. Any changes we want to make individually can just bring us even closer to feeling healthier. My husband has felt an increase in energy and has been able to jog every night with less effort. He thinks part of it is from the juicing of greens. I think he's probably right. I definitely have more energy since we've been consuming more greens. I even felt an increase in energy just from cooked greens! It all makes sense, really, because greens are so abundant on the earth and that's what most animals eat to survive. Of course we need to eat a lot of greens to be healthy.

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Read more: Going to phase out soy