Since I've been eating simply the past few days, it was easy to plug things into FitDay.com to check out my calories and nutritional levels. I was shocked that I wasn't even getting 600 calories a day! Shouldn't I have been ravenous and ready to eat anything if I didn't get enough calories? Is my metabolism and digestion so slow that I can survive on only half of what most others consume? I was a little freaked out when I saw that.

Most times I probably eat a lot more calories, however, because I usually eat nuts and seeds. However, that would be adding only fat and some protein to create those extra calories. Is that really that much healthier--getting the extra calories in the form of fat? :-/

If I eat more at a sitting, stuffing myself and stretching my stomach, I end up not being hungry at all later and I actually feel uncomfortable. Will eating only raw foods eventually cause a balance of acid in my stomach so that my digestion is faster, will it cause my metabolism to speed up to a healthy level? If so, then all will be fine in the end. I don't know. I do know that for now, I feel good. I feel like I'm eating what my body wants to eat, I have energy (not abundant, though), my body is looking and feeling healthier, etc. I want to follow what my inner self is telling me to do. It's telling me that I don't need to eat when I'm not hungry. But, seeing so few calories and so few nutrients (except for Vit C, which was off the charts in excess, and B6 that seemed to be adequate), kind of disturbed me.

This past week (since last Monday), I experimented with not eating any garlic (fresh or powdered). I tried this for three reasons: 1) I kind of felt that maybe my headaches were coming from the garlic; 2) I read that too much garlic can actually kill the healthy bacteria in the intestines and be a cause of B12 deficience; and 3) I have often felt that I am sensitive to garlic over the years. So, even though it was hard to do (because I absolutely LOVE garlic), I tried it. I didn't get any headaches last week (amazing with all the stress I had been going through). My B12 deficiency symptom (crawling skin feeling) didn't diminish. I feel my face is less puffy and under my eyes didn't get very dark at all.

So, now I'm thinking I'll eat garlic and see pay close attention to how I feel. The dark circles under my eyes always seemed to be connected with the garlic. So, we'll see. Is one week of not eating it long enough to test, I wonder? Oh! Something else I noticed. I have a keen sense of smell, and even though I can smell garlic on my husband's breath, it was never overly strong. Since about mid-week, I have noticed that my husband and daughter seem to ooze the odor of garlic (which I LOVE). Since I wasn't eating it, I guess I was able to smell it even more. It makes me realize that I must have *always* smelled like garlic to everyone. If my husband and daughter smelled *that* strong from only eating normal amounts of garlic, I must have been overpowering to those who don't like the odor. LOL I had no idea!

Eating more fruit seems to have made the skin on my face smoother. The small bumps that I have had on the backs of my arms (since I started that Metformin--I never had them before that), seem to have faded away, too. I used to think those bumps were from not consuming enough Omega-3s, but maybe it's from not enough Vit C? My nails have been longer, stronger, and whiter with the added fruit, as well. I can't say I'm overly drawn to fruit, however. I prefer greens. In fact, when we went shopping yesterday, we stopped at Trader Joe's before heading to the food Co Op and their bagged lettuce looked so yummy to me (after a weekend of only fruit) and I bought soooo much of it. I think I bought every type of lettuce they had that was organic. I even bought this head of "live" lettuce that has it's roots still connected (!). This week, I will be eating mostly lettuce, I can tell. I wonder how I'll feel compared to eating mostly fruit for a few days? I guess it won't be a clean trial of greens versus fruits, since I'm going to be adding more nuts/seeds and garlic into my meals this week.

My digestion is still feeling extra sluggish, even after two days of only fruit. I've been feeling a bit crampy and I wonder if it's from the slow digestion or maybe PMS? I guess I'll just have to wait to see.

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* 1/3 of a coconut shake (one young coconut (water and meat), 3T carob powder, one banana, 4T hemp protein powder, 2 handfuls almonds, 4 dates)

* salad (about 3 cups chopped romaine, 1/4 cup micro greens, 1 rib celery, about 1T olive oil, 1/2T lemon juice, 1/4 T nama shoyu, 1t fresh garlic, 1t fresh ginger)--yummy, but now my cheeks are flushed, and I have tiny hives starting on my lower jaw.

* someone's 1/3 of shake from this morning--if you don't drink it, it's mine, all mine! :-P

* Matt Amsden's "cheese pierogies" (1/3 of a turnip, 1/2 T of olive oil, 3/4 cup of macademia and cashew nuts mixed, 1/8 cup lemon juice, 1/8 cup nama shoyu, 1/8 of a red pepper, 1 clove garlic--I'm pretty sure I remembered all of the ingredients. The amounts listed here are what I ate (about half of the recipe!))