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Going Raw – Day 14
Two weeks into this raw food diet, and I have yet to have a normal day with digestion. Today was pretty bad, the raw oats at breakfast set me off. I ate lightly the rest of the day but made frequent trips to the bathroom and my intestines are still rumbling. I have never been a person to have much trouble this way, but now it feels like I have an irritated bowel. I also weighed myself today, and have lost another pound. I am now at my usual “normal weight” and have no wish to lose more. I think I have detoxed as much as I need or want to on this diet, and that it is time to start including some cooked food. I’ll continue to blog until the end of the month, and I will remain on a vegan diet until then. Here’s what I ate today:
Breakfast;
Oat groats, soaked
cherries
hemp/sunflower seed milk
maple syrup
Lunch:
Salad from last night
Snack:
coconut, sunflower seed, cocoa, date balls
Supper:
cup of hot water with fresh grated ginger
Going Raw – Day 11
I’m happy to say that both sprouted buckwheat and sprouted quinoa agree with me. I had really counted on and spent a lot of money on the raw nuts for this month and I am sorry I can’t use them. Many of the recipes I come across use nuts or lemon. Usually I can substitute sunflower seeds and I have been using balsamic vinegar in the salad dressings. I am about 1/3 of the way through the month now. Today my energy level was quite good. I saw patients this morning, then went to Science Rendezvous and the library this afternoon with my daughter, then to see a movie this evening. Typically, I would have taken a nap in the afternoon and then done one thing with her, not three! Digestion was great today, and aches anywhere else hardly noticeable. I was around ice cream and popcorn today, but did not really feel tempted. I haven’t had any cravings for some time now. I am thinking quite happily about canned sardines and sweet potatoes though, and will be glad to eat them in June! Here’s what I ate today:
Breakfast;
Buckwheat pancakes – sprouted buckwheat, apple, cinammon with a sprinkle of agave
Lunch:
Leftover vegan sushi with carrot sticks
Salad of spinach, apple, date, pumpkin seeds
Snack:
Pancake from breakfast
Supper:
Sprouted quinoa salad with lettuce, cucumber and dressing made of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, fresh dill, garlic, agave and ginger
Flax crackers spread with coconut oil
Snack:
Balls made from dates, sunflower seeds, coconut, cocoa, vanilla extract
Going Raw – Day Seven
Progress! After one week of eating raw, I am now seeing some benefits. First, my digestion has almost normalized. I avoided almonds and lemon today, and had just a bit of greens, so that likely helped. Lots of soaked seeds today, both sunflower and pumpkin. There is improvement with my neck, about 1/2 as stiff as it was. Allergic rhinitis is about 80% improved. My weight is down 3 pounds, which puts me at a BMI of 19.5. I really don’t want to lose any more weight. The best news is that my waist:hip ratio is now 0.77 which is in the normal range for women. So I have dropped my chronic disease risk considerably. Facebook fans – thanks for the encouraging remarks and suggestions. Makes this journey a lot more interesting.
Breakfast:
Large fruit salad of bananas, orange, apple, coconut, soaked sunflower seeds
Lunch:
Flax crackers
olive sunflower seed pate
Supper:
Spinach
curried pumpkin seed pate
Snack:
Date, sunflower seed, carob, coconut balls
Going Raw – Day One
First day down, thirty to go. My daughter asked me today, “Are you really going to eat like this all month long”? Well, we will see. Actually today wasn’t too hard. It really helped that I had dehydrated flax crackers last week, started sprouting legumes five days ago, made sprouted sunflower hemp seed “milk” last night and soaked sunflower seeds . Without advance preparation a raw food diet would likely either get very boring or fail. Here is what I ate today:
Breakfast – Kale, blueberry, chia green smoothie
Lunch – Romaine lettuce, sprouted legume pate, flax crackers and sprouted almond butter
Snack – Brazil nuts, sunflower/hemp milk, banana, cocoa powder
Supper – zucchini “pasta” with raw Mariana sauce and nutritional yeast, alfalfa sprouts, coconut carob mint balls
Snack – red grapefruit and coconut carob mint balls.
The yummiest thing today was the coconut carob mint balls. Here is the recipe:
Coconut Carob Mint Balls
1 cup of medium unsweetened dried coconut
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves
1 Tbsp carob powder
4 Medjool dates
a little water
Process in a food processor, form into balls. The fresh mint gives these balls super flavour, and higher nutrition than mint extract.
Health wise I had a unhappy digestive system this morning and was tired, but by evening actually felt somewhat euphoric. I know it can take up to two weeks for a body to adjust to a new diet, so I expect digestive things to happen. Overall, though, I was not hungry, and did not crave carbohydrates this evening. Off to bed now, I need to give my body a little extra rest over the next few days.
Going Raw – The Greens
I begin my raw diet tomorrow. Today I bought greens enough to last us until Monday, I hope. These are all organic, bought them at Dad’s Organic Grocery. One black kale, one green kale, one collard green, two leaf lettuces, one romaine lettuce and one cilantro. I’ll be adding in lots of other vegetables as well, like sprouts, carrots, avocados, onion, peppers and zucchini, but the leafy greens form the core of the raw food diet. These greens are rich in omega 3 fatty acids, calcium, iron, anti-cancer phytochemicals and even, if you eat enough of them, protein. Rotating greens is very important, since they all offer different nutritional benefits, and some of them have a slight action against the thyroid or interfere with calcium absorption. In fact, it is my plan to have lots of variety in all the foods I eat. God made them all unique and with specific nutritional values.
Wendy Presant, RHNC, Certified AIP Coach 