Raw/living food diet

green smoothie for dinner...YUM YUM To make it, I put in enough spinach to fill the blender and enough water to make it a liquid. Blend up the spinach and then add whatever fruit you want. I really like it with mango and pineapple (which is what I did in the above pic) but it's also good with blueberries. That way looks like a chocolate shake with purple specks in it. The spinach has such a mild flavor that I really don't notice it much at all.

Since I lost my kitchen 4 weeks ago (almost 5 weeks) I started eating mostly fruits and vegetables in order to save dishes. I was carrying my dishes over to Lanette's and washing them there and then dragging them back so the less I had to carry over the better. Then there was the fact that I was having to use the tub to rinse out/off the dishes and bending over the tub scrubbing didn't sound like a lot of fun to me. I figured after about a week I'd get bored with it and have to figure out some other way of eating without dirtying up a bunch of dishes.

But the week went by and a weird thing started happening...I wasn't craving chocolate anymore. I mean, if I see it, it still looks good and I still salivate at the thought of it! But then I have a bite and it's not appealing. But I wasn't craving it all the time and even when I did see it I had some self control. Most of you who read this have known me my whole life and already know this but some of you don't. When I was 19, I made a deal with a friend. We both wanted to lose weight so we agreed that we would gve up all chocolate and sweets for a year. The person who failed first would have to take the other (and pay) to a place of their choosing. For me it was Lagoon and for my friend, it was a concert. Well, my friend failed just a few months into it and I decided that I was going to keep going. I never got taken to Lagoon though. :o( Anyway, the year ended and I really didn't care about the chocolate or sweets anymore so I just kept going with it. For 2 years, I hadn't touched a bite of choloatey or sweet goodnesses. Then I met Adam and he bought a peice of chocolate cake. I don't like cake at all, by the way, but I had some and the chocolate surged through my body and I've had trouble since then just as I had had before starting the bet. I have often wished I could do it again. I can look at chocolate now and not HAVE to have it.

My usual day in food looks like this:
breakfast - high fiber cereal with dried fruit and milk
snack - some type of fruit or veggie
lunch - BIG salad (the taste changes according to what I add to it) and chocolate milk
snack - almonds & dried cherries
snack - veggie or fruit
dinner - green smoothie
dessert - plain yogurt with fruit

Also, through the day I drink a lot of water. Not sure how much exactly but more than the 64 oz. they say you should get...but that hasn't changed with this new way of eating for me...I've always drunk a lot of water.

That is not what I eat everyday but it is almost everyday.

Anyway, as I was starting this, I was having some serious hunger pains. I was worried that I wasn't getting enough calories and started reading up on nutrition on a raw food diet. I started learning about things like amino acids (I knew what they were but not really much about them at all), enzymes, pH balance, free radicals, the macronturients (carbs, protien and fat) and how all of these things are connected to your immune system. I've only begun scratching the surface so I still can't tell you much about the different aspects of nutrition that I listed but what I have learned has intrigued me greatly. I want to learn more because learning about it is helping me gain a better understanding of my body and all the amazing things it does! There are so many things about our bodies that we are just learning through modern science and it's just amazing to see all the jobs our bodies perform. I still wonder if I'm getting all the nutrients/calories I need but since I'm still eating non-raw foods a couple times a week, plus dairy (also not raw) everyday which gives me protien I'm not overly concerned. No matter how long or short this diet ends up being for me, I hope to take some of the knowledge I'm gaining and continue to follow it.

The thing I thought would end this for me after about a week was food fatigue. When I eat a lot of one food for a week, I don't want to see it again for a long while. But I haven't experienced that! I vary what's in my salads and smoothies so they taste different every time. Plus, when I get hungry, I have fruit on my mind instead of a donut. In fact, the more I eat these foods, the more I want them.

I still have a lot to learn. I am trying to read from sources that are pro and con raw/living food diet as well as people who don't specify either way so that I get different points of view on it. But since I don't know much yet, I am not strict about not eating any cooked foods...I stil do, just not very often.

In the process of eating this way and doing no extra exercising beyond my usual dogwalking, ice skating and biking I have lost 7-8 pounds. Not sure what I was at exactly when I started this.