Day 69

Scenes from a hike

I love this. For two days in a row, I've had comments that really make me think about the reasons and ramifications of being raw. I'm pretty consistent about responding directly to comments, but once again, I just have too much to say on the subject.

In response to yesterday's post, Jeremy of Stellar Path has asked:

Soup looks delicious. :) But my reason for this post - one thing that I've wondered - what made you decide to go raw and not just high raw? I certainly get the desire to eat a healthier diet; I'm just curious as to how you and Mad made the decision to completely eliminate cooked food (other than your one splurge meal a month) and not just cut back, so you could occasionally have cooked bread, etc.

I've been thinking about this all morning. Most diet books recommend a gradual transition into new habits and making small changes at a time to achieve success. I disagree. I believe in the power of grand gestures, jumping in feet first or not at all. It's like swimming. When the water is chilly, it's torturous to ease in one inch at a time. If you take the plunge, you'll be shocked for the first few minutes, but you'll acclimate a lot faster.

One of the moments that sticks out very clearly in my mind is from the first week or so of transitioning. I was at my weekend job, which is located in the basement of its building that is always freezing cold during the winter. I was eating a cold salad with a crappy vinaigrette (too much oil, far too little vinegar) and I was shivering and miserable. It sucked. It was definitely a low point in this journey, but I stuck with it, and it's gotten much, much better.

Going raw for us is not just about the food we eat. Certainly that's a large part of it, but it's a lifestyle change, a whole new approach to food. To get in the right frame of mind, everything had to go. Like Victoria Boutenko who smashed her family's microwave, I wanted a clean slate (Of course, I didn't actually smash our microwave. I'm hoping to sell it on Craigslist... but metaphorically, I was totally there).

I like having defined parameters that govern our eating habits. Walking into the grocery store, I immediately know what's going into my cart and what's off-limits. There's no quibbling about the bread, it just doesn't go into the cart. I frequently mention that we were junk food vegans, but it didn't start off that way. We used to eat pretty well, especially when Madeline and I were long distance. Like I was saying yesterday, I ate all organic and a decent amount of fruits and vegetables. I had my share of vegan ice cream, but overall I'd say I was pretty healthy.

Whenever Mad and I would see each other every few months, though, it was a time to indulge. We ate pastries for breakfast, made road trips to try amazing vegan restaurants that we'd read about online. Being together was a cause for celebration. I often returned home with my jeans a little tight, but that would remedy itself after a couple weeks on my normal schedule. The problem was that when we moved in together, our bad habits slowly followed. Two years later, we were 20 lbs heavier apiece and looking to make a change. We were already vegan and had cut out meat, dairy and eggs, so raw just seemed to make sense.

I didn't want to go high raw because I didn't want to give cooked foods the ability to edge their way back to the forefront. I mention bread often, because it's really what I miss the most, really great artisan bread. If we had it in the house, I would eat all of it. I just don't want to give myself that opportunity.

There are, of course, exceptions to every rule. I have an insatiable sweet tooth. Madeline, inexplicably to me, is not afflicted. Instead of focusing my energy on making dense, nut based desserts, I have a couple squares of extra dark chocolate a couple times a week, and this keeps me extremely satisfied. I've tried carob and I've tried raw chocolate. It's just not the same. I have a routine and a limit and it works out well. We also drink the occasional glass of wine. For me, it's a nice way to unwind at the end of a stressful day. I enjoy it, and I don't feel like I'm compromising my efforts by imbibing. I'm pretty sure that raw purists would heartily disagree, but although we eat 95-99% raw at home, I wouldn't consider myself a purist.

A few weeks ago, I was reading testimonials of people who have gone raw, and one said (and I paraphrase):

I used to have a great social life, but then I went raw and none of my friends wanted to hang out with me because I didn't want to go to restaurants or bars anymore, so I don't have friends but I've been raw for five years and I look and feel terrific!

Okay, they was more to it than that, but that's the message that came across to me. Now I'll be the first to admit that I'm a homebody. I work three jobs and go to school full time and at the end of the day, I really look forward to going home and getting into PJs. But when I can be coaxed out of my domestic sphere, I really want to enjoy the time I spend with my friends. In some cases, it's easy enough to order a salad or a fruit platter. In others, I wind up getting a cooked (but always vegan) meal. And as an occasional thing, I think it's good. Having friends and being social is another really important factor when it comes to health and well-being. I never compromise being vegan, because that's a moral and ethical stand for me, but raw is a lifestyle choice. It makes me happy to eat raw and it makes me happy to eat out with my friends. If it's been a while, Mad and I may chose to go out for a cooked meal, as well. I don't see that those things have to be mutually exclusive.

I hope that answers your question, Jeremy! In short, we wanted a big change, so it seemed logical for us to eat as close to 100% raw at home as possible. Your mileage may vary.

-Eloise

Day 33

Our blender shipped out and it's supposed to arrive on Saturday. I'm so excited! And it's good, because I have been craving green smoothies lately. I've made one each morning for the past couple days, and despite the lime rind debacle the other day, even the bits-o-green that that require chewing haven't deterred me from enjoying them.

Heh, I just found my blender online on Amazon. It's a Toastmaster with a 350 watt motor and the first review says:

This is not a real blender. You have to blend in parts because it doesn't have power. Avoid my mistake to buy this garbage.

That about sums it up. The rest of the reviews are equally glowing. I'm very glad that I didn't pay money for it. The Breville blender we ordered actually has a smoothie button that goes through a program that blends and pulses to mix everything up. I watched a video online. It was very cool. I think that might make me very uncool. :) Don't care.

So the smoothie I made this morning rocked. I'm really wishing I had more, even though I had 24oz. I have these smoothie cups that I bought a year ago when I thought I'd get an Oster blender ( they attach directly to the blender to make single servings). Even without the blender, they're still really convenient for bringing smoothies to go. My only complaint is that they're kind of heavy, since they're meant to double as a blender container. So my routine is to make a smoothie in the morning, fill the to-go cup and drink the leftovers as I'm getting my lunch ready.

Here's today's recipe. Deceptively simple, but so good.

Blue and Green
About 3 cups spinach (not heavily packed)
1 cup blueberries
1 small banana
Water to desired consistency (I used about 1.5c)

Blend and enjoy!

I made myself a "milkshake" last night with frozen bananas, water, soaked cashews, vanilla, cocoa powder and agave, since I thought it was the meals-through-a-straw thing that I've been craving, but no. It's definitely the greens. The fruit and chocolate was nowhere near as satisfying.

In other news, Madeline is sick. She seems to have some sort of stomach bug and the fun details that implies, as well as being very dizzy and easily winded with a slightly elevated temp. She's just not feeling well at all. I'm not convinced that it's not some sort of hardcore detox, but it could also be the Noro virus, which has been taking out people left and right in our area. It's crappy timing, because she has an important certification exam she has to take for work, but there's not really much to be done beyond waiting it out. She home resting and taking in fluids today. *Feel better, lady.*

-Eloise

Day One

Okay. This has not been an easy day.

I think for the most part, it's a result of a lack of preparation. Really, I read so much about what we should be eating, in terms of nutritional value, but didn't think about what would sustain us and make the transition easier. Plus, tomorrow is my only day off, so we're going to go downtown to the market, Whole Foods and a couple health food stores to buy a week's worth of groceries. In the meantime, we went to a local grocery store last night to pick up basic provisions for the day.

We started out strong: I had a cantaloupe and Maddie had strawberries for breakfast. I packed a decent amount of fruits and veggies to take to work. But we hadn't made a dip or dressing and I was tired of eating plain raw veggies before I was anywhere near full at lunch today. On the way home, I made an emergency stop at Whole Foods to pick up some cold pressed olive oil for dressing and made this:

Italian Dressing

1 large tomato

1 clove garlic

1/4 c water

1/4 c olive oil

2tbl lemon juice

1 tsp basil

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp salt

In blender, process all ingredients until smooth and creamy.

I would credit the recipe, but I saved a bunch of them in a text document and lack a source. It was good. I added extra lemon, which made it better. It definitely made "dinner" easier, but I can't really say we ate a meal, and I know we're both feeling pretty unsatiated tonight. All I can think about are starchy, cooked, carb foods. We spent a lot of time looking through recipe books and Gone Raw in preparation of our shopping trip, so hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. It may have been better to wait until we could shop properly, but we were very determined to start right on the first, as planned. I think it's good, though. We had the opportunity to see what really doesn't work so that we can plan a better week for ourselves.

As for detox, for me it's hard to say. I started with a bit of a cold or something. I've just been feeling pretty run down and waking up  the past few mornings with a sore throat, so I can't tell what's a result of that and what's caused by eating raw. It's probably too soon to tell, really. I had a low grade headache by the end of the work day, but that's not really unusual. I get headaches all the time, mostly from stress, and the minimal amount of food I ate certainly didn't help. One odd symptom that Mad and I are both experiencing, though, has to do with our eyes. I'd describe it as having difficulty focusing. When we were watching the Superbowl tonight, Maddie said that she wasn't physically tired, but her eyes felt so heavy. Again, though, it might just be because we haven't eaten enough. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

-Eloise