It's been a while

It's been a while since I posted. Usually, on blogs like this, that means the person fell off the wagon and is trying to avoid people. I am not. I have been gleefully raw for almost 3 months now. I can honestly say that I have no want to go back to my old lifestyle. I am never deprived, or hungry. I eat when I want to and as much as I want. I have been exploring as much as I can with all the foods I have access too. Trying new things, experimenting with flavors. Aside from all the great benefits with going raw, one awesome benefit is that I am more in tune with my body. I can hear it when it needs or wants something. Before it wanted everything. Now, it whispers "I would like some watermelon" or "you know, those tomatoes were awfully tasty. May I have some more?" It's been a wonderful few months and I am anxious to visit my doctor so he can see the change. He should be floored. Hopefully it won't be another 2 months until my next post, but there is just so much to do. :)
Raw-on!

Last night I made a leek and spinach salad. I had only had grilled leeks in the past so to have a raw leek was pretty interesting. It's much like an onion, though not as spicy. Unfortunately the artichoke I was going to use had past its prime. Alas poor artichoke....
I am down another 5 lbs... so that's a total of 15 in 5 days. Awfully dramatic. I am going to look around for any "warning signs" just in case that I am missing something. All in all I feel ok. Last night I wasn't as tired as the other nights so maybe that part of detox is waning. This morning I decided to hold off on my B12 supplement to see if that was what was giving me the extra boost of energy in the morning. I don't feel as energized this morning so perhaps I have found out what was increasing my energy and why I was crashing so hard later. I will need to research B12 a little more and see if I can take it in intervals throughout the day.
The morning smoothie was awesome! It was spinach. wheatgrass, banana, and mixed berries. The only issue was that the raspberry seeds were a bit much, but it was still an awesome smoothie.

It's been a little rough. I don't know if I am starting detox or not but my energy level is peaks and valleys. In the morning I feel like I can run a marathon, literally but then come the afternoon, I crash...and crash hard. After I lay down for an hour or so I get up make dinner and I'm fine until about 8ish... then I crash again.
It could be my body just getting used to my new pattern I guess. My blood sugar is the lowest it has been in years (not too low) and the times where I peak in energy, I really feel good. Cari said that she read somewhere that people with chronic illnesses like asthma and diabetes usually detox harder because they have a buildup of toxins from their meds. Sounds plausible, but maybe it's crazy talk.
I will be happy when the dehydrator gets here. I will be able to make granola and meat jerky (after 2 weeks). I love vegetables and everything we have made so far has tasted pretty good, but I am having a slight texture issue. I want something crunchy. I hope that some raw granola will do the trick.
All in all, I am still feeling really good. Aside from the energy issues, i actually feel better. I am having a hard time to remember to drink my water. I really need to stay hydrated as much as possible.
I made soup for the first time last night. It was a cucumber dill soup and it tasted great! the issue was that soup is supposed to be hot. I felt stupid eating a cold drink with a spoon. Even though it tasted wonderful, it just can't compute in my brain.
Tonight I made a leek salad with an excellent lemon olive vinaigrette. It tastes AWESOME!.

So I made chocolate pudding last night out of avocados. Amazingly enough it was perty darn tasty. It had the consistency of chocolate pudding and it was certainly sweet enough. Since we were using raw cocoa powder, it did have a more "bitter" dark chocolate taste which Cari didn't love but found tolerable. She never was a dark chocolate fan. I think with a little tweaking, it could become a standard for a sweet treat.
Last night I made a zucchini pasta with a nice sundried tomato marinara. It was really delicious! I have been making a crap load of food because one of the pros of this diet is that you can really eat as much as you want. I have been finding myself not eating much though. Like I only had one plate of the pasta and I was completely full. I don't know if it's bloating or all the fiber I'm eating is just making me less hungry but it's going well.
We broke down and bought the dehydrator yesterday. It was on sale for $250 so we decided to just pull the trigger. I would have rather waited to see how committed we are to this new lifestyle, but it's looking pretty good on all fronts. Cari isn't hating it anywhere near as I thought she would and I am enjoying it as well. The dehydrator will allow us to explore more foods in different ways and I think variety is a wonderful thing.
One thing I am not sure whether I should be happy or concerned about is that I have lost 10 lbs in 2 days. I knew weight loss would be dramatic, but this is crazy! I will see in the next two weeks how crazy it gets.
All in all, it's going amazingly well. I am making an attempt at soup tonight. Cari doesn't really like soup, but it will have to be a staple of our diet so here goes my first attempt.

Day one of 99.99999% unprocessed food is in the hamper! You may be wondering why it's 99.99% and not 100%. Ok, well you see a lot of my recipes, including the one I had last night, has this ingredient called nama hoyu. This is basically the champagne of soy sauces that is completely raw. The other thing it is it's $40 for 8oz. I don't have that kind of money to throw around so I decided to just get plain old organic soy sauce. I know, I know, it has been heated above the 115 degrees I am sure, but sacrifices must be made. Eventually I am sure Nama Hoyu will be in my spice rack, but for now I will need to make due.

Yesterday I went out and bought a crap load of vegetables. They barely fit inside my fridge, but with some duct tape I was able to make the refrigerator door stay closed. I suck at picking vegetables methinks. I have no skill in being able to tell what is ripe, what is not ripe. I am sure I will get better over the next few weeks.
Personally, I don't feel so bad. Yesterday morning I noticed an increase in energy, but I think that was the B12 supplement kicking in. Last night I was pretty tired (and slept like a log) so I am not sure if that is the start of detox or not. I will know more today.
The other thing I have noticed is a weird taste in my mouth. It's hard to describe it but it's almost metallic. Could be part of detox as well, or the Kale I ate yesterday.
Anyway, time to go forth into another day of unprocessed foods!

So I made my first raw smoothie today. It consisted of Kale, strawberries, pineapple, and blueberries. I also added a shot of acqai berry juice to give it extra ooompf! Well, it seems Kale is rather hard to blend. I had many different pieces floating around my cup. I can now see the merit of buying a high speed, $500 blender that all the websites talk about. I'm just not ready to spend that, so my smoothies will be chewy for now. :)

I am happy to report that my wife has decided to join me on my raw adventure. I was really hoping she would.

I am going out now to shop for supplies. Veggies on the menu for tonight!

The new me...

People are trying to kill me. No, not some ninja hired to take me out. Huge corporate conglomerates have been secretly poisoning me for years. They have been adding toxins and hormones to my food ever since I was born. Now that I am an adult, I am reaping the benefits of these poisons, much like everyone else.
I have let it slide for years. Sure McDonald's is bad... but a Big Mac is tasty. Diet soda has no calories, so it must be good for you. As more and more evidence comes out regarding our filthy, triple processing, injected, and rejected food supply, the more it looks like we are slowly killing ourselves.
Eating organic is a wonderful thing. Fruits and vegetables taste a whole lot better, organic meat is more succulent , even something as simple as an organic pop-tart has much more nutritional value than anything can buy at your local grocery store. So what has stopped me from eating these foods in the past? Honestly, it's the time it takes to prepare healthy meals and more so, the cost of everything. I love pears! I can get a pear at Publix for 89 cents. A place like whole foods, and organic pear costs well into $3-$4, for one! So I pushed it off... "Ah it's too expensive!" I rationalized to myself as I continued to eat junk.
Recently I have been re-evaluating myself. I used to be REALLY fat. A good 450. Over the years, I have slowly brought myself down to a fat, yet better 300. My wife and I were doing what we called a "poor man's Nutrasystem" where we would have a diet shake for breakfast and then lean cuisines for lunch and dinner. This worked. We did lose weight. But it didn't feel right. All the processed foods were low in calories but high in other things like sodium and ingredients we couldn't pronounce. The organic nature of food still clawed at my brain.
I decided that now was the time to try an entire lifestyle change. I am in a period of transition and what better a time then now to embark on something that could potentially fix my life. I am not a fan of fad diets even though I have been on almost all of them. The one that has always intrigued me the most was the "raw food diet". Though it is called a "diet" it is really just a lifestyle of eating unprocessed foods that haven't been cooked above 115 degrees. There is a whole bunch of science that goes with it, but essentially you eat healthy things your body was meant to eat while eliminating the unhealthy crap. Now I love fruits and vegetables more than most people. On this type of diet, not only would I be able to consume endless amounts of raw vegetables, but the process of eating would also make me healthier in other ways.
To be honest, other than the little research I have done, I don't know much about it. I have bought a book and will be using the internet as a tool in my quest to be mostly raw. You wonder what mostly raw means. Well, I refuse to eat raw meat (sushi excluded) and I do not want to eliminate that from my diet altogether, so I will, on occasion, eat cooked meat. Mostly lean chicken, but sometimes red meat as well. I want to start at about 80% raw 20% other and want to eventually get to about 90% raw foods. Other then meat and perhaps the occasional baked sweet potato, I will have everything raw. No sugar, no artificial sweeteners, nothing processed. I will need to give up my coffee it seems, but I might sneak a black coffee in every once in a while :)
I am going to go through this adventure and keep a log of it here. Wish me luck.