FouRAWth Day

Muahahah.

Whew! Aside from any midnight munchies, I have now survived four days of this tRAWial (that's trial for you unenlightened folks). First course: food with some pictures! Second course: beginning raw-elations, or mulling over what I have raw-alized this week.

OK, enough of this silliness. Let's get down to the raw business.

BRUNCH: (In the true sense of the world) 10 AM: Smoothie with spinach, half a plantain, parsley, lemon juice. Threw some raspberries and blackberries into it to make a soup and ate that up.

Drank about two cups of cashew milk because I was still starving, at which point I began to feel very full.

SNACK, 11:30 AM: Banana blended with ice and water at Starbucks. Here's my cup:

The left side says Ice H2O Banana and the right side says Blended. I kept it as a souvenir!

LUNCH ISH, 1 PM: Raw Revolution chocolate coconut bar. How the taste of these so closely resembles crack, I'll never know.

SNACK, 3 PM: Apple and pear devoured about 5 seconds after purchasing them in the organic produce aisle at Safeway.

My arms were killing me in Pilates but my legs, abs, and glutes were doing just fine. There really is something to this increased endurance thing!

DINNER, 5:30 PM: Spinach and banana smoothie with blueberries tossed in, eaten with a celery stick instead of a spoon.

Don't you wish your food looked this beautiful?

REST OF DINNER: Apple with walnuts (and walnuts is merely a euphemism for "RAW CHEESE").

EVENING SNACK, 7:30 PM: Large organic orange, followed by guacamole with orange peppers as dipping implements:

There is twice that amount of guacamole left for tomorrow.

I am still incredibly back and forth about whether I must eat cooked food now or if I can never go back to the pre-raw lifestyle. I'm sure that a lot of this uncertainty comes from the moodiness reported as a side effect of the raw food diet.

THOUGHTS, FEELINGS, HOPES AND DREAMS. 

BENEFITS: 

Vision: As I have mentioned, the clarity of my vision is through the roof. Colors are incredibly vivid, and the clarity is around me and in my mind. I had to stop taking vitamins because I felt like I was getting way too much Vitamin A or something and it was making everything too bright. But with a plant diet like this, who needs vitamins?!

Energy: Today is the second day in a row that I voluntarily did not drink coffee, and I feel great. I have had more endurance when rock climbing or doing pilates, and more energy when running - also due to excitement at how vivid the music sounded. Recovery time for muscle exertion seems to have been halved. 

Mind: On the bus this afternoon, I had some incredible realizations while catching part of the music in someone's headphones, the bus buzzing along, and people's conversations drifting in and out with their shuffling footsteps.  Filling my consciousness with these sounds was enough that I did not need to think; I realized that if I also added aimless thoughts, it would only be because of my antsiness about problems that I could not solve on the bus anyway. If I try to plan out my evening, I realized, I will just think in circles for the remainder of the bus ride, exhausting my brain, then think about it some more when I get off the bus to actually make the decision. I just wanted to sit there and meditate for a long time as a way of relaxing the brain. (Ever since an especially productive yoga class, I have felt like the mind is a muscle. I know that this is wrong, but it is a very useful analogy for the amateur meditator.)

SIDE EFFECTS:

Energy: It is 10 PM, and I am exhausted. I slept in until 10 this morning. Doubtful that I am still catching up on some leftover sleep deficit, more likely that I am burning out on burning all this food or not getting enough to eat even though I feel like I am stuffing myself all the time. (see next 2 points.

Bloating: I feel bloated 90 percent of the time. What's the point of any byproduct weight loss of this diet if you can't enjoy fitting into your jeans anyway?

Cold: Today was actually not that bad, but all the previous days I was absolutely FREEZING! According to Steve Pavlina (possibly my new idol, http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2008/01/raw-food-diet-day-4/), many raw foodists report a sensitivity to temperature.  Well guess what? It means you are not eating enough, and your body does not have enough calories to keep you warm. 

Yes it can be a great way to drop a few pounds, but that was not my intention, and if I am shivering even when I am continuously stuffing myself, I need a diet that is more dense in calories. This is even with the cashew milk, raw bar, cheese, and avocado that I ate! 

Moodiness: Let's just call this the PMS diet, seriously. In an earlier conversation with my mother, I was expressing what seemed to me some perfectly rational concerns about the fact that my summer internship has not kicked in yet, and her only response was that this is a non-problem and I should eat a sandwich.

Skin: I can handle a few pimples (which are apparently part of the "detox" process), but the bottom half of my face has been incredibly dry and flaky no matter how much I moisturize. 

Hair growth: The hair on my legs has been growing at an amazing rate. I suppose fast hair growth can be viewed as a positive sign that your body is healthy, but this is not exactly what I was looking for.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS:

Price: I am averaging about $15 on produce per day, not including raw nuts, which go anywhere from $10-$15 per pound. Raw bars are 3 bucks a pop, and all the other schmancy goodies like raw cereal are prohibitively expensive on a starving student's budget.

Convenience: I did not realize how long it takes to blend things up. I have not noticed my time spent eating go up because I have devoured everything with the dental dexterity of a starving squirrel, but this did result in some stomach cramps from basically chugging up to several pounds of produce in under 20 minutes. I'm sure that budgeting less than 20 chews per bite of fibrous leafy matter is not optimal for digestion.

BOTTOM LINE: 

I think that my reason to keep going with this would be to see what other gems my brain might throw out, such as the meditation episode on the bus. Also, I would like to go without any caffeine for a while, and I am thinking that I may not have enough energy in the morning to do so unless I am eating all raw. But then again, my energy is so variable on this diet that this is not an actual reason.

While I suppose that some of the effects like dry skin and being cold are an adjustment period, I don't know if I buy the whole idea that your body needs to adjust to something which is supposedly GOOD for it by giving you indicators that something is wrong. 

Anyway, I will pass out (a whole 1.5 hours earlier than yesterday) and be completely whimsical tomorrow morning about whether I start off with a spinach and banana smoothie or some nice fried eggs and hash browns.

In either case, more food for thought (yum yum) to come tomorrow!