After 8 months of trialling no-poo (ie. not using conventional shampoo and conditioner), I've decided to stop. For some reason, I could never get a consistent result. Some days it would be great - other days it would be horrible. I've tried baking soda, flax-seed, honey, chamomile tea, apple cider vinegar and lots of other things.
This has actually been a powerful lesson for me. Why do something for 8 months that clearly doesn't work for me? Mostly because I'm a stubborn person and secondly, if I say I'm going to do something, I'll do it even if it causes me problems.
Funnily enough, the last eight months have also been a period of hibernation, of not wanting to be seen and working through some old emotional crap. The transformation is continuing this year, but now I feel like I'm slowly coming out of a cocoon. I'm learning to be more flexible, more kind to myself and willing to grow and change if things aren't working.
As I've said - raw food is not about the food, no-poo is not about my hair. They are both symbols for my values and ethics, and they have to work for me, and not against me.
Please don't let me discourage you from trying or continuing with no-poo. Everyone's hair is different and it works beautifully for some people.
So now I'm trialling some shampoos and conditioners. When I first washed my hair a week ago, it came out great and it's one less stress for me.
I need some help though. I'm looking for hair products with minimal packaging (or can be bought in really large quantities), great ingredients, beautiful results, and a lovely company ethos. Any suggestions?
I actually feel quite liberated, and I'm just so excited to see how else I can transform and simplify my life. I'm ready to shed everything else that's not working for me!
Are you holding on something you know doesn't serve the vision of the best you? Please share!!
Last night I went to a Thai restaurant with young coconuts on the menu! I've never seen this in a mainstream restaurant. It was fresh, cold and delicious!
Unfortunately, I also had Thai curry with rice and I woke up feeling pretty crappy. So I decided to do a new 30 Day Raw Food Challenge.
I know that I have to take it to the next level, as I'm getting married in less than 3 months, and my wedding dress is still a tiny bit tight! My diet has been "less than optimum" lately, (I'll never say "bad"), and I'm sick of feeling crappy. I need my energy for all the new projects I'm working on!
I'm keeping a raw diary anyway in the lead up to the wedding, but I'm keeping it private at the moment. So, I decided to do a public challenge, and post my diary publicly to keep myself accountable. So much can happen in 30 days, especially when you are raw!
30 Days to Raw Challenge
Can I do a month of conscious eating? I'm not talking about 100% raw, but I want to see how I can cope on my own and what I can accomplish with 30 days on raw.
If you want to do it too, email me at denise@greendetoxqueen.com or leave your email address in the comments, and I'll send you a template of my diary you can use too. I'll automatically sign you up for inbox updates of new blog posts but you can obviously unsubscribe at anytime.
There are no rules, you aren't accountable to me, this is just for yourself!
Feel free to advertise your blog in the comments section if you are doing it too.
Let's go for it!
Get your free copy of my ebook- The Raw Detox Diet, and learn how I lost almost 10kgs (so far) with raw food, cleansing and detoxing.
My cats, Leo and Bruno teach me so much about life - here are just some things I noticed...
1. Biting your own tail is a pointless exercise
The past year of transformation has brought up some ugly, painful stuff. Some days I feel like I've got one foot firmly on the brake, and it's frustrating!
I took this video of Leo baiting himself with his own tail, and then pouncing and biting it - over and over. Doesn't he realise it's his own tail? Doesn't it hurt?
It made me laugh, but it's reflected in my current life. I recently wrote Recognising the Bad stuff and Moving On, and I got a great response. I guess people like to hear about the failures as much as the successes, and it was a lot of fun to write.
I wrote about a disaster day as a TV Extra. That experience brought up a lot of negative stuff for me, and it was a completely pointless exerience devoid of any joy or progress towards my goals. By the way, I have bruises all over my legs from it. Wow, how about next time, I just get someone to punch me in the face for some money!
Just for a change, I'm going to try and accept experiences that honour myself and my goals... just for a month... just to see if I like it... it's probably rubbish.... :)
2. It's nice to help a friend
I have some wonderful raw friends who I've only met in the last year, and now I can't imagine getting through this journey without them. It's silly even calling them "raw friends", because they are simply friends. They are going through their own transformation process, so we help each other out if the going gets tough.
This video of Leo and Bruno reminds me of my own brother. We'd be nice to each other for about a minute, then one would poke the other and it would be on. "MUUUUUUMMMM - he's touching me!!"
As well as friends supportive of your new lifestyle, I highly recommend getting a coach. I speak to my coach Dave weekly, and it's incredibly helpful having someone who is there to help you reach the places you can't get to by yourself!
3. It's good to stand out.
I was trying on my wedding dress last week. I lay it out on the bed, and a minute later there was Bruno perched delicately on the dress, looking at me, like "what....?". Remember - he's a fluffy BLACK cat and my dress is white! I almost had a heart attack.
Some of my beliefs have made me stand out (particularly since I started a blog), and my diet choices definitely make me stand out, and I was afraid of that for so long. I'm the easy going Australian, remember?
Not anymore. I'm not going to hide, even if things get a little hairy (I know - these analogies are getting worse!).
4. Life is for pleasure
Wow, what a concept for me! Isn't work about suffering? Isn't pleasurable food bad for me?
Now that I work from home, believe me, cats really do sleep ALL DAY. It's a busy schedule of napping on the bed, then napping on the couch. They only break to scratch the stuffing out of chairs. Every 20 minute or so, I give them a stroke and they receive me like a grand King and then roll around in pleasure. They love it - the more attention the better!
When I did the Karen Knowler 30 Days to Raw programme, we had to do a self care exercise every day, and I really got how stingy I am with myself, but I'm practicing with small things, and building the muscle.
Pleasure for me is around spending time with lovely people, buying flowers for myself, going to the cinema, being outside in nature, going to a ballet class, reading, personal development classes....etc
I'm going to really challenge myself this month and see how much pleasure I can stand!
So this is what I've learnt from my cats this week! Don't create pain unnecessarily, hang out with nice people, stand out and make life pleasurable!
Life is changing - big shifts are happening and it's all good.
Thanks for reading!
xx Denise
Need a coach?
I've worked with three amazing life coaches that I highly recommend. See if any of them resonate with you
Leo and Bruno are rescue cats from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home. The brothers were abandoned by their family who moved overseas and didn't find a new home for them. Bruno in particular had some bad experiences in that time, he hates being picked up and can get really nervous.
They have given us so much pleasure and love, not to mention endless funny stories. If you are thinking of getting a cat, please find a rescue centre. It's so rewarding knowing that you have given a home to an unloved pussy cat, who wants so little from you and will give so much in return. And if you are going to have one - you may as well have two! Double the pleasure!
Wow – an interesting
last couple of days. I signed up as a Film and TV Extra. I am a major movie buff, so I thought it would be fun, and earn me some handy cash while I’m still setting up my business. Obviously, getting
married puts some financial pressure on too!
I got a two
day job for a gambling commercial, getting to fly in a harness! The bad news
was getting up at 5am to get to set on time. It really wasn’t a good
environment for me. Bad food, people who are either too busy to be polite, or
people who are not really living their dreams. Harsh, but some of the most
complaining people ever – lots of the “shoulda, woulda, coulda”.
That’s a
really toxic environment for me, because I recognise that I can be influenced by negative
people. I don’t need any excuse to have a complain, especially when we found
out that we weren’t getting paid overtime (and yesterday’s shoot went 5.5 hours
overtime). Getting up at 5am and then bed at 1am to do it the next day is really not great for my body and mind either. (see pic!)
My attitude
has been terrible the last two days. Running through my head was:
Resentment…..
“I’ve
been ripped off”………”I’m never paid what I’m worth”…..
Beating
myself up ……. “I always get myself in these situations…”
Feeling
trapped…………. ”I can’t believe I have to come back tomorrow… I have no choice…..”
Feeling
poor…..”I never have enough money”….I’m going to run out of money soon”…
It’s
good to recognise these thoughts and move on. So being an extra is not for
me. Good to know, let’s move on to the next thing. One that serves me, my
goals and my higher purpose.
What's this got to do with Raw Food?
Raw food for me isn't about the food. It's about nourishing myself, being authentic and discovering my true passion in life. What I put in my mouth is just one part of that.
Since I discovered raw, my tolerance for toxic situations, people and food is being tested constantly. It's sometimes extremely confusing and painful, because I like life to be easy going. I like to know where I stand.
I believe in the Law of Attraction, so it's really quite shocking to write down what I was saying to myself. It's no coincidence that as I was putting those toxic thoughts into my brain, I was also feeding my body with all sorts of crap food from the set. I want to be more aware my thoughts, so even if I do "slip up", then I don't let it descend into the "My life is terrible, and I'm a terrible person" tirade of self punishment.
The lovely Blanka sent me these words.....
"We want to eat raw to feel good about ourselves, not to feel bad when we don't"
That's a brilliant reminder that it's not about the food. It's about my life and happiness.
I've had two breakthroughs this week in taking raw food living to a new level.
I'm raw at home, which is great because I work primarily from home. What has tripped me up during my raw food challenges is eating out, particularly in restaurants. Old habits mainly.
The first breakthrough is about our wedding. When we created our menu tasting last year, I was still a carnivore. None of the vegetarian options really excited me, and I was too afraid to ask the caterer about catering for raw foodists. (There will be at least 3 of us!!)
This is interesting, because my career has been in event planning - and if my boss or client said there had to be a special food option, I would have told the caterer "this is what we want". I'm out of practise deciding what I want. I'm generally the conduit making it happen for other people. Isn't it strange that even though it's my own money, I was reluctant to ask for what I wanted?
In the end it was ridiculously easy. I emailed them a small raw recipe ebook and asked if they would consider doing a raw option for me and the vegetarians. I mentioned that I wrote a raw food blog and had to practise what I preached. They said no problem, and by the way, did I want them to make the raw chocolate cake for the dessert option? YES PLEASE!
The second breakthrough was around a dinner party. It was a set 3 course meal with a big group of old friends who don't know me as vegan. I thought it would be easier just to eat the vegetarian option and "not make a fuss".
Instead I called the restaurant in advance to tell them I had "special dietary needs". They had a vegan soup already, but they agreed to make me a salad for dinner (instead of the cheesy vegetarian pasta), and a fruit salad for dessert (instead of the three dairy dessert options). They were extremely nice and had it all ready for me. Other people at the dinner asked for the fruit salad too, but there was only one - FOR ME!
Both of these things made me ridiculously happy. They are both very easy things, but I'm exercising a weak muscle - learning to recognise what I want.
Can you relate? Is there anything you are putting off because you don't want to "make a fuss"?
