Day 6

I can't believe it's only been 6 days.  Raw seems a lot easier this year.  I don't know why.  It almost seems like last year was my practice run at it and now I'm doing it for real. 

How does raw feel?  I'm sure for each person it is different, so I'll tell you how I feel on a raw diet. 

Hungry?  Sometimes... especially at the beginning.  I was really hungry day the first few days.  My body was most likely cleansing out the carbs and alcohol I had been giving it.  Now, I'm not as hungry.  Today I made a huge bowl of sprouts, avocado, tomatoes and topped it with my not tuna pate and red pepper hummus.  I feel full.  I also have made myself drink more water!

Energy?  Heck yes!  I have a lot more energy and a sort of mental clarity.  I almost feel more creative on this diet.  Or maybe more able to accomplish tasks.

Sleep?  I wondered if I'd sleep better on this diet.  I don't know yet.  This is yet to be determined due to some late nights at the bakery and friends visiting....  I'll try to remember to get back to you on this.

Overall?  I think raw is going well.  I thank the Goddess that I have a dishwasher to get me through.  I wouldn't be juicing every morning otherwise.  The food processor and blendtec are a godsend.  I'm hoping to fuel up the dehydrator soon! 

So far -3lb/this will be day 5 at the gym! 

on the move....

Be prepared to know too much....

Any dietary change for me often results in a altered bathroom schedule. This blog should really be called the "Poop Edition"

Why do I call it that?  Because I poop more when raw, and I believe it's a good thing.  I thought I'd do a bit of research on this.  Here is a quote from Raw Food Blog

If you eat raw foods, it’s about 24 hours after swallowing your first bite that feces are pushed out of the body. To determine whether your bowel movement is healthy, we look at its color, smell, and the difficulty of evacuation and degree of hardness.

Ah yes this makes sense, it doesn't take as long to process as all that processed foods.

So, here's to pooping! 

Day 4/-2lb/tonight will be workout number 3

I'm in it = Day 3

OK, so day one was the hardest.  I mean, think about it.  waking up New Years morning and saying to yourself "I'm going to be raw" is not a easy pill to swallow.  Mainly because I wanted to be snacking and munching and hanging with my friends more.  Alas, it was an apple and a banana for breakfast.  Salad to lunch while I watched others eat fantastic food at the restaurant, and more rawness in the afternoon/evening.  I survived it... and stayed 100% raw.

Yesterday I made lots of good stuff - I'll need to get you the pics -  i need to keep my camera handy.
So for breakfast i did carrot juice so I could use the pulp in raw carrot cake cupcakes.  Then I did the red pepper hummus which I was addicted to last year, a "tuna" pate, "ranch" dressing, and almond butter cookie balls!  I would say I'm set for a couple of days.

Today so far it's been juice.

What else am I doing that's different than last year's cleanse - I'm working out.

So right before new years I was at 139 and today weighed in at 137 (135 has been my lowest since joining the gym)  I'm hoping for 130...  we'll see. 

Raw Chili

the Raw Chili was a hit! So freaking good!

In bowl I added:

2 c shredded carrots

1/2 large red onion

1c chopped almonds

in a food processor I chopped

2 red bell peppers

2 Portabella mushrooms

4 stalks celery

In the Blendtech:

3 large tomatoes

5t chili powder

4t cumin

4 cloves garlic

1T Oregano

2T Onion powder

2T apple cider Vinegar

nutritional yeast to taste

NOTE: this is very liquidy... but it will be ok!

I let this sit overnight in the fridge. I then added the nut meat posted yesterday and onions on top! YUM!

In the Raw

I bought a 14 cup food processor this weekend and last night it made it's way out of the box. I think it was pretty excited to join the crowded counter top to create some raw nut "meat" and chili. YUM!

1 C Raw Almonds

1 C Raw Walnuts

3 large tomatoes that I dehydrated earlier that day

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp cayenne

4 tbsp cold pressed olive oil

This tasted great right out of the food processor. I have it in the refrigerator now and plan to top the chili with this mixture. If it all turns out I'll share the chili recipe tomorrow!

Favorite Creation...

That's right... I finally figured something out! I was addicted to my Blend Tech. I have been blending the heck out of everything. I wasn't always getting the result I wanted but I was forging ahead anyway. Then I thought, "I should grab my food processor" And then I made magic happen.

My phone camera does not do this justice

-two tomatoes

-package of mushrooms

-two cloves of garlic

I spread this on some Love Force raw crackers and in some celery! Holla!

I also had more dehydrated fun. I juiced yesterday morning and thought I shouldn't waste what I'm not drinking. So I added some raw agave, mixed it up and dehydrated. So now I have carrot, broccoli, apple, agave chip things... ha!

Keep on Keepin' On

I've passed the one week point, SUCCESS! Yay.

Yesterday I just played around with some stuff. I put mushrooms, tahini, garlic, mixed greens, braggs and tomatoes in the blender (I later learned the food processor would have been a better choice) and went to town.

Below is yesterday's Lunch = Portabella Mushroom stuffed with the stuff I blended, sprouts and sauerkraut on the side. Not to bad!

Then a light snack before bed and all favorite gone raw = Celery and Almond butter.

one week

I thought magically when I put my jeans on this morning they would be too big for me. I'm not doing the raw diet to lose weight, but I thought it would be a great benefit. I'm reporting, my jeans fit just as they always have. I don't have a scale meaning I have no clue if I've lost pounds.

I had a great weekend, during my prenatal yoga teacher training a special raw dish was made for me by the amazing Mark Stroud both days. It was so good that all I did this weekend was smoothies in the morning, great lunch that I didn't have to prepare, and then some butternut squash chips at dinner time.

I lucked out last night at the grocery store finding reduced fresh cut fruit and some almost out of date mushrooms that I'm going to get creative with today! I think my favorite two things are my blender and dehydrator!

Rawk On!

Good Morning Dehydrator

This morning my beautiful friend offered to do my bakery deliveries this morning leaving me a bit more time to get my rawness together. What a Goddess she is!

Anyway, I broke out the dehydrator. I have owned this dehydrator for a few years. It was purchased to help prep someone for the Appalachian Trail. I wasn't really in charge of the dehydrator, I made food and she did the technical work of whatever else was needed. Alas, this morning I got out the step stool and brought it down.

Here you see Butternut Squash, Yellow Squash, Garlic, Sea Salt chips in the beginning phase. The dehydrator will hopefully work it's magic and these will be AMAZING!

Side note - a lot of people are asking me about this raw diet and such. I truly am making it up as I go. I am usually a heavy researcher... this time I'm just doing. I do have cookbooks coming in the mail though!

A day in the Raw

I think my hunger has finally curved. The first couple of days all I wanted to do was eat, eat, eat. I was concerned if i would ever feel full. I'd eat a raw bar which would hold me a little longer than say an orange, but I was still hungry. My body must have been figuring out what to do with its new fuel.
"Hey body, we are running on whole foods now".
I have been thinking about digging out my dehydrator. I have only used it to prep a someone for backpacking and then again with a camp backpacking group. So the idea to create raw foods excites me. I was thinking of making some chips and making a salsa. The best part of raw so far is that I'm making it up, no cookbooks. (Although I have three coming in the mail).
What am I eating?
Today's Breakfast - well blended leafy greens, two oranges and a banana
I have a massive salad packed for my lunch
I'll be at my favorite little store Park + Vine and most likely devour some raw goodness there and then home to bake and make myself some chips... that's the plan.
Oh yeah, I'm going to invest in sprouting jars tonight....... I am becoming the hippie I never thought I'd be ;)

Day 2

I have made it through 24 hours of raw... here is what I know
-I have lived on a diet of sugar for way too long
-It is hard to break up with caffeine
-Old habits really are hard to break
-I miss sugar

Yesterday was full of nuts, raw bars, salad, fruit etc. Then I discovered that I had some raw chocolate syrup... raw cocoa with raw agave... this was a piece of heaven to me.

My funniest moment was while making cinnamon rolls. I'm doing my thing as is my habit. When I was ready to let the dough rise I started to clean up a bit and out of habit put some dough in my mouth. I instantly realized what I did (oh creature of habit) and spit it out. I thought "this is not raw". I laughed at myself and moved on.

I made my first dressing... just made it up:
2 small zucchini
1 avocado
1 clove garlic
cashews
water

I later added lemon to it when I realized the avocado was making the dressing turn brown. I'm not sure it helped. I also added some sea salt for taste. Over all it was pretty good.

I am experiencing some symptoms of withdrawal from the sugar, carbs and caffeine, but I'm pushing through.

I'll start taking pictures of my food to make this a bit more interesting.

Here we go, day 1

While browsing facebook, as I often do, I saw that a friend of mine was planning on going raw for 90 days. She wanted to know if anyone wanted to join her. I have dabbled in raw here and there but my sugar addiction always has brought me back. The truth is I'm vegan for the animals and not my health, this means coffee, diet coke, twizzlers, sour patch kids, any baked good that my bakery makes, etc.

Knowing that today was my first day raw I ate everything in sight this weekend, tons of vegan pizza, eggless salad sandwiches galore, brownies... and so on.

Last night I took a fellow yogi with me to Trader Joes as he is very knowledgeable about raw foods. $130 later and my trunk full of more veggies and healthy foods than I think I've ever purchased in my life I was ready to start the challenge.

I woke up this morning planning out my day. I did not eat the chocolate I melted for some baked goods, that was my first challenge. So here we are:

Breakfast was 1 Grape Fruit and a strawberry, banana, flax seed and cashew milk smoothie (I had never made cashew milk before!)

Lunch is some nuts, fruit, and a raw bar.

I don't know what will come of this diet, I'm hoping for a nice cleanse! I'm looking forward to learning the way of raw foods.