Since I bought raw chocolate yesterday, I was able to resume my normal routine of eating a piece of chocolate when I woke up. I was surprised to observe how large the 50 calorie portion was and the virtual lack of sugar, instead a whopping high percentage of fat and saturated fat. Anyway, WHATEVER.
The rest of breakfast: ~8AM? Salad with chickpeas, spinach, onion, celery. OK, so I'm still not sure if the rehydrated garbanzo beans from the bulk food aisle are TECHNICALLY raw, but they are cheaper than almost anything else you can eat on the raw food diet, low in fat and high in protein! They also weren't all the way rehydrated when I ate them but I just crunched away.. I was hungry!
Shortly after I got a stomachache that probably lasted for an hour or so. I attributed this to the half of an onion I cut up into my salad but looking back, I realize it may have been the un-rehydrated chickpeas. Well my next batch is going to soak until it sprouts!
Even though I wasn't hungry, I proceeded to fiddle with the cashews and stick blender to make some raw "milk" for later. It was ridiculously easy: soak cashews for over an hour, add 4 parts water, a dash of sea salt, and sweetener if you like (I used raw honey for the first batch and put in coconut oil instead for the second batch because I felt like it, then mixed them together.) If I told you anything else about the proportions it would go against my notion that cooking is like chemistry on acid, when divine inspiration comes to you to mix things together into an art form that is impossible to duplicate. Anyway, it had a taste and consistency that was well above and beyond anything I could have hoped for.
I drank my "cheat" cup of coffee later on that morning, almost feeling that the caffeine was excessive and only contributed to making me feel jittery. I am thinking about phasing it out (BIG GASP).
At 11:45, I devoured half a mango and an orange on my way to the Mission to grocery shop, suddenly feeling spacy and like everything I was seeing was too vivid. Come to think of it, my vision has been a lot brighter since I started the diet, getting uncomfortably so when I get hungry - but not in a "the-sun-is-too-bright" sort of way.
Halfway through shopping I stopped feeling hungry and was incredibly energized, focused not in a complete way but in that same vivid-vision way that made my movements clear and strong. Afterwards, even though I did not feel my appetite anymore, I had my lunch of avocado, spinach, and carrots. After a bit of walking, I devoured an entire chocolate bar and half a block of cashew kale cheese. This seemed incredibly excessive listening to my stomach whine about being full to capacity, but it was the least spacy I had felt all day, and I chased it all with an apple when I got home.
I felt stuffed to the brim but not particularly satisfied all afternoon. Around 6, I made a smoothie with spinach, zucchini, banana, cayenne, and lemon juice, and had lettuce wraps with green liquid and raspberries. The organic raspberries were crisp and as tasty as they were bright. I scooped the rest of the smoothie up with celery sticks.
Pilates class! Since this also happens to be pilates challenge week. I was absolutely freezing walking over. During class, my nose ran for the first 10 minutes and my face felt really red. I felt like my cold was back. At the end of class, though, I got warm and felt fine.
Another weird thing is that I was upset for no reason during class. It seemed that something about the lighting of the room made me feel depressed, even though I love pilates. Also, I teared up two or three times while finishing up The Giver this morning, but no idea if that can be attributed to diet or the fact that the story is INTENSE! Seriously, reread it. Go.
After pilates, I ate a pear, which only made me hungrier, so I got salmon sashimi with seaweed salad and regular salad. The regular salad had dressing, and eating it made me crave all things non-raw. I could tell that the dressing was not very tasty, but at the same time it was amazing and delicious. I definitely felt full in a too-many-calories sort of way, but an hour or so later it seems to have settled. I felt energized right up to 20 minutes ago. My lowest energy level was probably around 12 PM, about an hour after I had coffee. I am really beginning to think that I can phase out the coffee. Crazy!
When I was getting sushi, I craved rice like no other and wanted to go back to when your food options aren't stupid and few and limited. But all those food options are wonderful and incredible. Already I feel different on many levels, physically cleaner and physiologically more alert. Let's not get into spirituality yet.
I realized that I have to buy all organic produce (unless it has a thick peel) because otherwise I am just front loading my body with pesticides. So I bought up the organic produce aisle at Safeway tonight in preparation for breakfast tomorrow. It wasn't a matter of making healthy choices, I just went for everything that I liked out of the things I could eat. The girl behind me in line was buying chips and ice cream and looked over my items with a slightly guilty expression. I can't say that I crave anything else, but it is only because I have firm reasons not to eat it that have nothing to do with how I look or long term benefits (my reasons are pure curiosity and determination to complete the challenge.)
But at this point, I feel like I am already so in touch with my body that I can never go back to eating any other way. I have magically not chewed any gum because I am doing enough chewing as it is, and gum is clearly not raw - and I can just imagine how my body would flip out if I slipped it something that unnatural.
Cheats: I am not even going to google how un-raw seaweed salad is. Along with coffee/tea, I refuse to give that up. I can bypass hot seaweed in soup, but the cold stuff with olive oil and sesame seeds (whether store-bought or home-made) stays! Also, I really don't care that spices are not raw. I will slash my salt intake dramatically but pepper and cayenne and perhaps other things like tumeric are good for you and fire up your energy.
Bottom line: my moods and energy levels were slightly wacky, I miss rice, I will never give up seaweed salad, but other than that I am pressing on!
The rest of breakfast: ~8AM? Salad with chickpeas, spinach, onion, celery. OK, so I'm still not sure if the rehydrated garbanzo beans from the bulk food aisle are TECHNICALLY raw, but they are cheaper than almost anything else you can eat on the raw food diet, low in fat and high in protein! They also weren't all the way rehydrated when I ate them but I just crunched away.. I was hungry!
Shortly after I got a stomachache that probably lasted for an hour or so. I attributed this to the half of an onion I cut up into my salad but looking back, I realize it may have been the un-rehydrated chickpeas. Well my next batch is going to soak until it sprouts!
Even though I wasn't hungry, I proceeded to fiddle with the cashews and stick blender to make some raw "milk" for later. It was ridiculously easy: soak cashews for over an hour, add 4 parts water, a dash of sea salt, and sweetener if you like (I used raw honey for the first batch and put in coconut oil instead for the second batch because I felt like it, then mixed them together.) If I told you anything else about the proportions it would go against my notion that cooking is like chemistry on acid, when divine inspiration comes to you to mix things together into an art form that is impossible to duplicate. Anyway, it had a taste and consistency that was well above and beyond anything I could have hoped for.
I drank my "cheat" cup of coffee later on that morning, almost feeling that the caffeine was excessive and only contributed to making me feel jittery. I am thinking about phasing it out (BIG GASP).
At 11:45, I devoured half a mango and an orange on my way to the Mission to grocery shop, suddenly feeling spacy and like everything I was seeing was too vivid. Come to think of it, my vision has been a lot brighter since I started the diet, getting uncomfortably so when I get hungry - but not in a "the-sun-is-too-bright" sort of way.
Halfway through shopping I stopped feeling hungry and was incredibly energized, focused not in a complete way but in that same vivid-vision way that made my movements clear and strong. Afterwards, even though I did not feel my appetite anymore, I had my lunch of avocado, spinach, and carrots. After a bit of walking, I devoured an entire chocolate bar and half a block of cashew kale cheese. This seemed incredibly excessive listening to my stomach whine about being full to capacity, but it was the least spacy I had felt all day, and I chased it all with an apple when I got home.
I felt stuffed to the brim but not particularly satisfied all afternoon. Around 6, I made a smoothie with spinach, zucchini, banana, cayenne, and lemon juice, and had lettuce wraps with green liquid and raspberries. The organic raspberries were crisp and as tasty as they were bright. I scooped the rest of the smoothie up with celery sticks.
Pilates class! Since this also happens to be pilates challenge week. I was absolutely freezing walking over. During class, my nose ran for the first 10 minutes and my face felt really red. I felt like my cold was back. At the end of class, though, I got warm and felt fine.
Another weird thing is that I was upset for no reason during class. It seemed that something about the lighting of the room made me feel depressed, even though I love pilates. Also, I teared up two or three times while finishing up The Giver this morning, but no idea if that can be attributed to diet or the fact that the story is INTENSE! Seriously, reread it. Go.
After pilates, I ate a pear, which only made me hungrier, so I got salmon sashimi with seaweed salad and regular salad. The regular salad had dressing, and eating it made me crave all things non-raw. I could tell that the dressing was not very tasty, but at the same time it was amazing and delicious. I definitely felt full in a too-many-calories sort of way, but an hour or so later it seems to have settled. I felt energized right up to 20 minutes ago. My lowest energy level was probably around 12 PM, about an hour after I had coffee. I am really beginning to think that I can phase out the coffee. Crazy!
When I was getting sushi, I craved rice like no other and wanted to go back to when your food options aren't stupid and few and limited. But all those food options are wonderful and incredible. Already I feel different on many levels, physically cleaner and physiologically more alert. Let's not get into spirituality yet.
I realized that I have to buy all organic produce (unless it has a thick peel) because otherwise I am just front loading my body with pesticides. So I bought up the organic produce aisle at Safeway tonight in preparation for breakfast tomorrow. It wasn't a matter of making healthy choices, I just went for everything that I liked out of the things I could eat. The girl behind me in line was buying chips and ice cream and looked over my items with a slightly guilty expression. I can't say that I crave anything else, but it is only because I have firm reasons not to eat it that have nothing to do with how I look or long term benefits (my reasons are pure curiosity and determination to complete the challenge.)
But at this point, I feel like I am already so in touch with my body that I can never go back to eating any other way. I have magically not chewed any gum because I am doing enough chewing as it is, and gum is clearly not raw - and I can just imagine how my body would flip out if I slipped it something that unnatural.
Cheats: I am not even going to google how un-raw seaweed salad is. Along with coffee/tea, I refuse to give that up. I can bypass hot seaweed in soup, but the cold stuff with olive oil and sesame seeds (whether store-bought or home-made) stays! Also, I really don't care that spices are not raw. I will slash my salt intake dramatically but pepper and cayenne and perhaps other things like tumeric are good for you and fire up your energy.
Bottom line: my moods and energy levels were slightly wacky, I miss rice, I will never give up seaweed salad, but other than that I am pressing on!
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