Green Juice

I'm sitting here, drinking my cup of green juice (It's not as bad as it sounds, trust me!)
One week ago I started drinking this juice every morning, as well as eating a more alkaline, plant based diet.
It's been pretty amazing. I have energy, I'm happy (My family jokingly calls my green juice my happy juice) and I just feel better.
I got a new juicer yesterday and I'm loving it!
I'm just excited about finding out about this stuff and feeling better and feeling good again. When you're sick for a long time it feels weird to actually have energy and be able to do stuff again.
Being in control of what I eat has helped me a lot too, I think. Being able to throw some veggies in a juicer or mix up a salad has helped me feel in control which is something you don't get a whole lot of when you're sick and your whole life is determined by what the doctor's need from you and what your body needs from you.
It's amazing, and I feel amazing, and I'm happy and excited and feeling great.

This is the green juice recipe I made this morning (Minus the pear)

The Love List

I've spent almost the whole week trying to figure out how to write this post.
Basically, it goes a little something like this...
I love my life!
I am really happy right now. I have energy again (Yay!) and I feel better and I'm just excited and alive and it's pretty awesome.
So what changed?
I started taking back control and being creative. Whenever I don't have one of these two things - whenever I feel out of control or when I lack creativity - I go into a pretty messy place. I easily get overwhelmed and I start to freak out.
I started eating better (I'm trying to go for a more alkaline diet, starting with the green juice I make and drink in the morning that, around here, we jokingly call my happy juice)  and, at the beginning of January, I started this writing program called 750 words where I write 750 words a day.
I've just been having a really good week.

Here's a few of the things I'm loving this week:
* My parents. After talking to and seeing the lives of some other patients with chronic illness and their families, it makes me really grateful for mine. I think everyone has complaints about what their parents could have done differently, but all things considered my parents handled my being sick pretty well, and I am so grateful for that.
* I love my green juice.
* I love it that the semester is almost over! Don't like studying for finals, but I'm so excited for a new semester and a new start.
* I love this video: What it's like being chronically ill, incase you ever wondered

* And I love my life!

7 Quick Takes ~ Volume 9

1. I haven't posted regularly for a long time, and I miss it. I miss having conversations with you beautiful people at my kitchen table, even though we really may be hours apart. I don't know when I'm going to be back to blogging regularly. Until then, please feel free to enjoy me in tiny bursts when I do decide to get my butt over here and blog something :)

2. I guess one of the more important things I should mention is that I totally changed my diet. A friend recommended this to me at the end of June, as she had already started on this new diet change and it was working well for her and she thought maybe it would help me as I had been having really bad stomach pain. I was skeptical, but after finding some recipes online that fit with this new diet, I made the switch. It's been almost 2 weeks and I feel great!

3. So, as for the diet change, I made the switch to NO white flours or refined sugars. I'm also limiting the amounts of gluten in my diet. I've defiantly been noticing the changes. For one, my stomach pain has been cut in half! It is less frequent, and I haven't had any severe pain episodes. (YAY!!!!) Also, I've noticed I have had a lot more energy (No longer needing a rest in the afternoons and actually feeling rested when I get up in the mornings) I also haven't found myself missing junk foods that much, as I am in love with finding new ways to make my every day diet taste great.

4. I was stuck at number 4. And I wrote this big long thing, quoting the words of Taylor Swift and people, and then decided I didn't like it so I erased it all. :)

5. So, July is almost over, which makes me sad. Even though this summer hasn't really felt like summer, it's nice to not have any school. I am excited for August though. August brings Vegas, and the GSD convention (Read something yesterday that I loved: GSD stands for Got Super Determination. Isn't that right?) This summer has been more work then I intended, more figuring things out, more trying to figure out where I'm going, more healing and journeying and stumbling and waiting.

6. For those of you who didn't know, for school in September, I'm doing half and half. (Am I the only one who thinks that makes me sound like a cup of coffee?) For one of my math classes (I'm doing two) and my chem and physics, I am going to the Catholic School in Sexsmith, where my siblings go. And for the rest of my classes, I'll be doing online. This next year is going to be a big year for me. It's grade 11, the year before my last one. It's when I'm actually old enough to start thinking about careers and going to college (WHAT?!?! I can't be that old already!) And it's scary, trying to figure out what you might want to be for the rest of your life, and having all this pressure on you to be good enough. But you know what? I'm learning it's ok if I don't always see the path I'm going to take, sometimes it's ok if I just see the next step.

7. I was going to write about something here, but there's this tiny butterfly outside my window who is distracting me. It's reminding me of change, and that one day the caterpillar wakes up and becomes a butterfly, that when a caterpillar thinks his life is over, he becomes a butterfly, and that to become a butterfly, you must want to fly so much you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.
Change is sometimes a good thing... and one of these days I'm going to break out of this cocoon and fly

Happy Friday!