The best kind of Friday

It's a sprint through the sprinklers kind of Friday.

In GGP, right as Lake of Silver Bells comes on, and I remember the dream I had last night,
about two encounters
(or was it two dreams, each about one encounter? the world may never know)
with someone I know used to know,
(who shares the name of a Colorado van driver)
in Asia.

So my iPod asks me,
"What have you learned?"

I think I know.
The dream was familiar but... different.
You are different.
I am the same?
No, I am very different. That's what I've learned.

What else?

Risks.

People change, so is that the risk?
Trust is the risk.
Do I trust that you will change or that you will stay the same?
That depends on how much I change.
Oh hey - the more things stay the same, you know, the more they stay the same.

BUT....

YOU are not the van driver.
I think?!

But just a little bit.
Unless I am wrong and you are not the van driver AT ALL.
Time will tell.

You're like a squirrel in the middle of the road - halfway there but don't know which way to go.
I am in the middle of the road with nowhere everywhere ANYWHERE to go!
The road is endless infinite beautiful.

No diet = no puns today

I woke up this morning and simply could not stand the idea of being a cashew-milk eating, caffeine-shunning hippie so I brewed up some java and ate the most satisfyingly processes protein bar of my life (with a banana, OK.)

I will definitely go back at some point - I just brought up my dehydrator to make raw bread! And I don't think it's worth the time and investment to throw in a piece of raw bread on your cooked sandwich - strictly unscientifically speaking, you won't get any of the benefits of an all-raw detox and it's kind of silly to put in the money and the effort to have raw bread with, say, an egg.

What I WILL do with all the time I will save chewing is move all these entries over to a new nutrition-focused blog, and make this blog back into one of a more personal nature. Comment if there are ANY food related issues you are curious about! (Toxins in raw peanuts and what exactly it means to be "USDA organic" are high on the list.)

Namaste!

Raw Detox Diet: LOGISTICS

Things to consider if you want to try the raw diet!

TIME: Surprisingly, it takes much longer to "cook" raw food, whether you are doing extra chopping, blending, soaking, dehydrating, the list goes on.. If you are soaking anything, keep in mind you may need to start the night before.

You will also need to schedule extra time to chew and go to the toilet (no pictures, sorry.) If this is going to be an issue because of your workplace etc., try a weekend cleanse.

MONEY: Ways to save money on produce are PYO's, farmers' markets, buying large quantities of one thing that is on sale. Ways to spend money are weird things you can't really pronounce from the natural foods store. Something for every size wallet!

ORGANIC: IMO, if you are eating a lot of produce, if you eat the peel it should ALL be organic. One of my older neighbors tried to get into a debate with me about whether we should trust the USDA's labels, since he doesn't even trust the San Francisco Fire Department. I am at pains to draw the parallel. If this controversy piques your interest, drop me a comment and I will gladly look into it.

BODY TEMPERATURE: Oh hey feeling like you're going through menopause prematurely (or again). Being cold was definitely more uncomfortable than being warm, but I would notice hot flashes if I walked into a hot room or if I was exercising. Just today, so much blood rushed to my head during Pilates class that my face was beet red for the entire class - kind of like beer glow. Ways to deal with this: get a blanket, eat more, bail.

STATE OF MIND: When I was all raw, I noticed that I was more stressed out and perhaps more depressed for no reason. Maybe I only noticed this because mid whining about something that seemed SO IMPORTANT, my mother told me to go eat a sandwich. When I added a cooked meal, I noticed such an incredible feeling of well-being and happiness after the cooked meal. Maybe this diet will make you slightly bipolar. I did not notice any mood swings today; on the contrary, I was eyebrows-to-the-sky excited all day. I think eating raw may take whatever you are already feeling and amplify it. Recall that colors were brighter for me and I was more into my music. I also cried when reading The Giver; while this is definitely more emotional than I would normally get, I welcomed the ability to live the book so intensely. You will feel like you were leading An Overcooked Life before!

VITAMINS: I stopped taking vitamins within 2 days of this diet because I felt like I did not need them. Definitely do not take A or E because you can overdose on these. If you are going all raw, B complex every other day or so can be nice since you can only get B12 from animal products (and if you are eating raw fish, I doubt that fish munched on dirt to bring you your B vitamins). No need to take Vitamin C - see TIME part above. (If you don't understand this reference, go take a double dose of vitamin C and wait half an hour. I am not responsible for anything bad that may come as a result of this.)

ENERGY: When I was all raw, coffee was unnecessary, but I got incredibly exhausted around 4 PM. I think digesting all that is hard work! Solutions: nap, eat more, cheat and eat cooked. I think drinking a hot cup of tea with non-raw honey is a good way to get some energy back if you don't feel like going all out for a cooked meal. If you are doing this for a cleanse, that has virtually no calories (unless you're REALLY into the honey.)

COFFEE: Don't do it. Just try! I have been a daily user for almost 8 years, and I have no qualms telling you to try to go off it.

Speaking of not coffee, I'm going to hit the sack and add a second part if I think of more logistics tomorrow. If there's anything I missed that you're curious about, feel free to comment!

Suparatri.

How To: Try a Raw Detox Diet!

A couple of readers have asked me how to get started on a raw cleanse with the intention of weight loss, so I will walk you through my initial detox week with emphasis on weight loss benefits.

If you thought that going raw simply means putting the frying pan away for a couple of days and munching on cold foods, boy, have you got a think coming. Aside from fresh produce, most things that you can buy at a store are NOT raw. By definition, raw food has not been heated above approximately 114 degrees F (this cutoff varies) to keep the enzymes in food from denaturing.

Some foods you may think/hope are raw, but aren't:

Peanut butter made from "Roasted Peanuts" is NOT RAW because the peanuts have been roasted. Nuts are only considered raw if it is specified on the package. You can get them at natural food stores. I have been staying away from raw peanuts because of aflatoxin, but this has to be verified. Raw almond butter is pretty easy to find. You can even get raw walnuts at Safeway.

Dairy is NOT RAW unless it is unpasteurized and specifies "raw" on the label. Be careful with this!

Sugar, honey, spices, vinegar, olive oil is not raw. Olives have been cured and are not raw.

Coffee and tea are HOT and are not raw. I believe that the process of making these out of the plant involves heating them above 118 F, so don't think you can cheat by munching on the espresso beans or making ice tea with teabags.

Dehydrated legumes in bulk food bins: I am not sure if chickpeas and other bulk beans that you can buy at a Whole Foods or natural foods market are raw. I soaked my chickpeas from Whole Foods for 4 days, waiting for long tails to pop up, but apparently the sprouts are very small (see image here.) I will update you when I soak my second batch.

Weight Loss:

If you are going for 5 days tops, you can probably make it eating almost exclusively produce, with some nuts thrown in to get your fats. Produce actually has a lot of protein if you are eating enough of it, so you don't need to worry about eating a ton of nuts to get your protein.

Some key players:

-Spinach, kale, other greens: iron and PROTEIN :) Note that greens have ridiculously few calories, so eating any amount of them to make it count will make you feel super full. Pace yourself.

-Bananas and mangos: fairly calorie dense fruits. Apparently a lot of raw foodists eat bananas like there's no tomorrow. I can't really eat a lot of fruit or I start feeling sick from all the sugar. Maybe you can adjust to this if you push through, but I am still living my life, and I don't intend to spend a week of it nauseous.

-Avocados: if you can get your hands on these, you are set. I have been eating an avocado approximately every day on this diet.

-Coconut oil: since it is apparently AWESOME and helps you lose weight. It is also clearly more calorie dense than lettuce, so it will help you fill up without feeling bloated. Pop a half a tablespoon into your blended creations.

-Whatever else is ORGANIC and on SALE :)



Sample "recipes":


If you think that not heating your food means saving time, you have a second big think coming. You can ingest calories much more effectively if you make smoothies or juices, rather than chewing everything, because you will be so hungry that you will swallow food before the 20 recommended chews per bite, leading to an unhappy tummy. If you want to get really fancy, you can soak, sprout, dehydrate, the options are many!

-Spinach Banana Smoothie: This is one of my favorites. Blend a banana, a bunch of spinach, some cilantro or parsley, lemon juice and/or rind, cayenne (my cheat). Put blueberries, raspberries, or blackberries into it to make a "soup" and eat with 3-4 celery sticks instead of spoons, biting off the celery each time you scoop with it.

-Guacamole with orange pepper chips: Combine a lot of avocado with much less chopped garlic, cilantro, and lemon juice. Scoop with orange bell pepper (or any other color, orange peppers are just the cheapest) instead of chips!

-My cashew milk recipe: After doing some research, I came up with this recipe:
 1/2 cup cashews
 2 cups water
 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
 some coconut oil
 some RAW honey (or agave if you are vegan)

Soak cashews for at least an hour and rinse. Combine all ingredients in blender. This will keep in the fridge for 2-3 days. You can dilute the cashews farther if you want this to be more calorie dense.

Serving suggestion: stir the milk before pouring because cashews tend to separate slightly from the water.  Fill up a bowl with some raw granola (I like Living Intentions Chia Ginger Superfood Cereal) and add fresh berries if you like!


COMING UP SOON: Some logistics and things to consider, as in, advice for YOU!

Weekend W-RAW-up

For lunch on Friday, I had another spinach banana smoothie (SURPRISE!), as well as a piece of toast with an egg on it.

Here's my spinach and banana smoothie:

I don't have a picture of the egg, but just picture an egg with a halo around it and you get the picture. That was the most divine egg I had ever tasted. Perfectly cooked with coconut oil instead of olive, silky and smooth, it tasted like sheer perfection. I swear it made my vision even sharper than all the raw nutrition I had been consuming all week.

Dinner involved a ham and cheese panini, but it must not have been enough, because I was FREEZING all night.

Saturday involved some raw "cereal" for breakfast, a burger for lunch, and a burrito for dinner. I felt great! I was so much warmer, happier, more energetic. I've decided that two raw meals and one cooked meal every day is a good long-term balance that I can happily maintain.  My taste buds would be happy eating raw all the time, but in my opinion, the side effects are a sign that something is wrong and not just a "detox period."

Anyway, if a detox period of indefinite duration includes:

-Ridiculous moodiness;
-Afternoon lack of energy (this never happens to me);
-Simultaneous hypothermia and hot flashes a.k.a. "sensitivity to hot and cold";
-Gnarly dry skin and breakouts,

Then I don't think that I want to live my life in a transitional detox state!

Benefits to 2 raw/1 cooked:

-I kind of don't drink coffee anymore. HOW can this happen and WHAT is the world coming to?! I have been happily hooked on the brown IV drip since I was sixteen, and I have never voluntarily bypassed my morning cup and still felt great and alert.
-You basically get to eat whatever you want all the time. When you are eating raw, chewing is like a second job. As soon as I finish with a meal, I am looking for my next snack. This is what hunters and gatherers must have felt like! I'm sure that foraging for the cheapest avocado in the Mission is no less straightforward than discerning among edible and lethally poisonous plants while dodging tiger attacks or arrows from neighboring tribes.
-And when you get to your cooked meal, you STILL get to eat whatever you want because no way are you not starving after eating raw for the past 18 hours.
-Morning vitality and great endurance minus dry skin, shivering, or mood swings. Please tell me what there is not to love. NOTHING, I say! The RAW-volution is here! 

B-RAW-Kfast Day 5

So, I woke up this morning determined to eat something cooked but ended up eating raw because it's all that there was in my house and convenient. I just wanted a bowl of cereal, and all I had was raw sprouted granola and cashews to make milk. (Well, I didn't even make milk because Dean was still sleeping and I don't know who would want to be woken up to the sound of cashews stick blending at the crack of dawn on a Friday morning.)

So instead, I mushed up a banana and some ginger juice and used that as the "base" for my granola, with blackberries and raspberries thrown in.

Yum?

I was feeling a little weird this morning. That is why I wanted to switch back to cooked.  By weird, I mean kind of shaky and strung out. In a physical, not emotional way. I woke up feeling happy because I decided that I could eat whatever I wanted. Currently I am drinking hot non-raw tea with non-raw orange clover honey.

Whether I eat cooked or raw for the rest of the day, I will try to make the meals themselves be more like "cooked" meals. (Example: raw cereal with raw milk instead of a fruit puree for breakfast).

My skin is still incredibly dry, so I put olive butter all over my face this morning. Ingesting a tablespoon of olive oil probably may have done just as well. Also, I took a B vitamin since I figured I may be running low on B 12, and that seemed to help me feel better. 

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!