Birthday, Cruising, Detoxing, and Gardening

Whew, it's been a while since I've blogged and I have a lot to cover!

I haven't posted in a while because Lance and I got to go on a Hawaiian cruise! I was voted by last year's sales Presidents Club winners as the honorary Presidents Club member in 2010 out of a thousand+ people at work! Pretty cool... The Marketing team organizing the event was fantastic and made sure the cruise crew knew about my food issues. The Norwegian Cruise Line was fantastic! The buffet had a great selection of fresh fruit and vegetables and they have a chef that specializes in special diet needs. He was amazed at the sheer number of allergies and sat down with me and worked on a menu. I wasn't 100% raw on the cruise, but I was 100% vegan, allergy free, and well fed!

Lance and I had a great time visiting four of the Hawaiian islands. The first day was spent checking in. The second and third days were spent on Maui. We didn't travel much around the island, but got off the boat and did a lot of walking. The bus driver told us where to find sea turtles - and we found 6 huge ones! It was great watching them poke their little noses up.

Near the sea turtles, there were dozens of people wind surfing? I'm not sure what it is called, but they held onto a large kite while on a surf board. We had one guy ham it up and come in close to smile for the camera.

We stopped in Hilo and went up to view the volcano. We were expecting liquid hot magma and sharks with fricken laser beams attached to their heads, but saw a puff of smoke instead. Fortunately, we got to see some liquid hot magma in the evening when we went around the island to the port at Kona.

Kona was a tender port, so we took life boats to shore. There was a farmers market within walking distance and stocked up on honey mangoes, macadamia nuts, and avocados the size of a dinner plate. YUM!

Our favorite island is still Kauai - where we honeymooned - but Kona and Maui were great. The Na Pali coast was as breathtaking as I remembered - and we had an even better view from the boat than when we hiked it.

We had a full day at most ports and two days on Kauai. We rented a car and rushed to the valley in Waimea Canyon that was fogged in the last time we were in Kauai. I got the shots I was hoping for!

I felt really great during the beginning of the cruise and was able to work out up through the last couple of days. The food caught up with me a bit and I started getting a little more sluggish and developed what looked like hives from the sun. Then I went by my favorite fruit stand in Kauai and they were nice and added extra protein powder. Soy protein! I had to load up on Benedryl and spent the last day half passed out on a beach. I really can't complain too much about it because it was my favorite beach on Kauai and I got to watch the waves crashing on the shore. Not a bad way to spend a few hours in an allergy fog!

I was a bit naughty on the cruise and had, in addition to cooked veggies, potato chips. Lots of them. I probably didn't pick the best time to try the Gabriel Cousens Phase I diet when I got back and got hit with quite a bit of detox symptoms. That laid me out during the first week back. I decided to back off of the diet a little and try to stick to mostly Phase 1.5, but that hasn't been 100%. I have been 100% raw and cut way back on my fruit sugar intake.

While we were gone our garden has gone wild! I can't believe how much things grew and my mom brought my grandparents over just so they could see the difference between their garden and mine. They have very rich, composted top soil near a lake and I have hard clay soil in the city. We used humi-zyme on our garden, and the stuff is fantastic! Our plants are easily 5x the size of my family's plants they bought at the same tilth sale. You can't tell they are the same age. I'm already going out in the morning to pick my lunch for the day and I pick a good amount of my dinner. We have 3 types of lettuce, arugula, kale, and spinach ready now. We have cauliflower, broccoli, chard, and several other kinds of greens that will be ready soon enough. The berries are already forming, which doesn't usually happen for another month at least! I would highly recommend treating soil prior to planting with humi-zyme (it's not intended as a fertilizer on the plants - but as a soil treatment).

Champ has been a bit out of sorts. I'm putting him back on a raw diet and calling the homeopath. He has ulcers on his eyes that aren't healing because the cells are sloughing off instead of adhering to the cornea. The vet doesn't see how it could be related to the immune system and I don't see how it couldn't be. He's started to smell, his poop isn't firm, and he has been low energy. He does so much better on raw, so I'm picking some up tomorrow. I'm giving the homeopathic treatment a week and then we'll look into regular treatment. I hate seeing him walk around with a cone on his head.

We did get some great shots of him at the arboretum. It has been pretty cold here, but today was beautiful and last weekend we had a few hours of sunshine.

Today is my thirtieth birthday and I have a lot to be thankful for. I felt well enough to go on a cruise and I got to work out. I have knowledge about nutrition and feel pretty darn good. I am able to do things I didn't think I'd ever do again a few years ago. Most of all, I have an awesome husband I love. He has been great, and patient on the days I get crabby and frustrated. I think he likes the days I feel well and tries to enjoy them with me. We tend to pack them a little too full, but it's nice to be living life. It was nice to spend today with my family and husband, and spending time working on the yard and talking with Lance was a treat.

Oh, and the "cheese"cake I made was plate licking good... I'll have to post pictures :)