Today marks Day 5 of eating 90% raw and Day 5 of my Year of Feeling Awesome. Eating raw is just one of the changes I hope to incorporate to make this year the one that sees me feeling the best I’ve ever felt in my life - emotionally, mentally, physically. I want to be one of those perpetually happy people who don’t seem to know how to not laugh and smile. I want be in love with life.
I’m not sure if 90% is an accurate percentage or not for the way I’ve been eating the past four days and into today. I’m not sure how to calculate such a figure. Maybe I should be calling it "Raw Until Dinner (and Possibly Even Then Too)". I ate a grilled cheese sandwich and pickles with B on Friday night but since then all my suppers, as well as my breakfasts and lunches have been raw. I expect that some of my suppers, predominately the ones at home (as opposed to work), will not be completely (or even partially) raw and that I will ingest the odd non-raw food here and there throughout the day as well. Though I would like to limit my non-raw consumption to dinner time, I am not going to give the whole thing up and despair if I happen to eat something cooked or processed at any other point in the day. I am on this journey to learn about myself, nourishing my body as best I can, and accepting both my strengths (first learning to believe that I am strong) and my limitations.
What have I noticed after four and a half days of eating mainly raw foods? I haven’t noticed any drastic changes, just a couple of small ones.
I’ve noticed that even with the reduced caloric intake (a hearty greens and vegetable salad has less calories than a sub sandwich or even your regular healthy pita sandwich) I haven’t been hungry except when it’s been normal that I would be. Yesterday, for example, I had a large green smoothie mid-morning consisting of a mango, frozen raspberries, a bit of water, and a large handful of baby spinach. At around 5 p.m., I ate a stalk of celery and three quarters of a large carrot cut into sticks with about 1/3-cup of Not Tuna paté to dip them in. I had two small clementines about two hours later. At roughly 10 p.m., I began eating a large salad made up of one head of chopped romaine, a large handful of chopped red cabbage, celery, yellow pepper, grape tomatoes, cucumber, carrot, and a sprinkling of pine nuts dressed with a creamy cucumber dill dressing to which I’d added half a small, seeded tomato. The salad took me about an hour to eat at work - 15 minutes on my break and then the other 45 minutes taking bites in between typing. I did find myself hungry this morning around 8 a.m. or so but that is to be expected. I made another large green smoothie this morning of kiwi, peach, frozen strawberries, and spinach and stretched it out over about an hour as well. I’ll probably have a small snack of vegetable crudités and dip or mock tuna mid-afternoon and then work on thinking about supper.
I’ve noticed that my bladder has been filling quite quickly and frequently the past two days and into today. I can only assume it’s a combination of the higher water content in what I’ve been eating and the shedding of accumulated water weight. I stepped on the scale on January 1 as a starting reference and when I stepped on it again yesterday out of curiousity, it told me that I’m done about two pounds.
I’ve also noticed that, unless I eat too many nuts, I don’t tend to get a bloated or tight feeling in my stomach. I don’t feel full but I know I’m satisfied. I’m packing more nutrient-rich foods into my body while ingesting less food. My body is able to use all of what I give it and, as it isn’t cooked, the enzymes that aid in digestion are not destroyed and the body is better able to do it’s job and do it efficiently. I don’t miss that feeling that used to come with almost every supper (and many lunches) of having eaten too much or of having the canned fruit dessert stuck behind the chicken and potatoes main course in the digestion process. I’ve read that since fruit (for example) digests much quicker than meats (again, for example), the fruit gets hung up behind the meat and is essentially rotting rather than digesting because the body is busy working on the meat. As the fruit rots it creates gasses which then cause that uncomfortable bloated, gassy feeling.
I’m learning as I go. I don’t claim to know much about the raw food lifestyle but I’m confident that my health is not being compromised while I learn more about it. I’m finding incredible resources in forums like Raw Freedom Community, You Tube videos, and blogs like The Sunny Raw Kitchen, Barefoot and Frolicking, Radical Radiance, The Happy Raw Kitchen, Nicole Raw and Awake (and her video blog, The Raw Box), Rawmazing, Raw Food Passion, Rawdorable, and so many other sites. I think Choosing Raw will remain my favourite forever though. Gena can be credited with sparking my interest and inspiring me in the first place.
Today I’ve been listing to Jim Carey (that’s Carey with one "r") talking about dispelling the raw food diet myths. I am a newbie in this journey and with each step I want to become more and more informed so that I can answer questions on why I eat raw, what raw is all about, and "What is so wrong with cooked foods?" My answers right now would be incredibly limited. I don’t think cooked food is wrong per se, but I am quickly starting to believe that raw foods are much better for my physical, mental, and emotional health and I want to be able to effectively and clearly articulate why that is. I’ve found this article written by Marc Lacasse to be concise and very informative.
I am very much looking forward to this journey. This is only Day 5, but I’m excited for tomorrow and the next day and the day after that. Every day I see more and more just how much variety there is in the raw foods lifestyle, that it isn’t just carrot sticks, green smoothies, and salads, and I’m amazed. I want to be a part of this. I want to make the best choices I can for my health and I think this journey is a huge step onto that road for me. No more waiting at the crossroads.