Raw Odyssey

I ate fruit for breakfast with the 80/10/10 plan in mind. This turned out to be very unfulfilling. Before I would have normally become hungry I felt I was starving (I’m talking the growlies AND a headache!). I ate a hummus sandwich for an early lunch and was satisfied enough to not even think of snacking. (I was also engaged in a game of Monopoly for a few hours, which might havea distracted me from eating). I ate dinner around 5pm. At that point I noticed that my calorie intake for the day was pretty low (barely over 1000) because I didn’t snack. Unfortunately, I had developed a stomach ache and felt my belly was full of air. I waited until 9:30 to eat a snack of 3 oz. of raw cheese (the last of it) and a slice of the sprouted bread. I’m done eating for the day, but still have water to drink.

I’m continuing to read about 80/10/10. It’s pretty extreme and controversial, mainly because of the very low fat. I will simply ease myself into a lower fat/lower carb plan- something like 60/10/30, first. I know for sure I don’t want to eat a lot of sweet fruits because I don’t enjoy it, so 70% carbs may not work at all (who’d a thunk I’d reject something sweet??). For sure an all-fruit breakfast didn’t work for me today. In an 1800 calorie day a 60/10/30 plan works out to 270 grams of carbs, 45 grams of protein and 60 grams of fat. I think I can handle that- it’s not too huge a change from what I’ve been doing.

TODAY’S FOOD

BREAKFAST 9:30 a.m.

Fruit salad: 1 apple, 1 small mango, 1 banana

LUNCH

I’m STARVING! It’s 11:48 and I’ve been starving for an hour but refused to accept it. Maybe it’s not hunger but somethinhg caused by the large amount of fruit I ate. I’m NOT having fruit for lunch. I’m having a humms/taboule sandwich with my new sprouted bread.

Two slices sprouted bread

1/4 cup hummus

1/3 cup taboule

2 oz avocado

1 slice romaine

DINNER

Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted Grain Bread, 2 serving

Hummus, 0.25 cup

Romaine Lettuce (salad), 1 inner leaf

Avocados, California (Haas), 56 grams

SNACKS

Raw Sharp Cheddar Cheese, Organic Valley, 3 oz

Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted Grain Bread, 1 serving

Total calories

CALORIES 1,504 CARBS 191 FAT 62 PROTEIN58

TODAY’S FOOD

NEW FOOD: SPROUTED BREAD

I was at Wild Oats today. I really like that place and am glad I discovered one near me! I found more raw nuts there than at Whole Foods, and more printed material (I love reading). I’m low on money so I only got one new thing: 7 grain sprouted bread made by Food 4 Life. I got it because of it’s high protein-to-fat content (only .5 grams of fat but 4 grams of protein). I am worried that eating bread will lead me back to processed-food cravings, but I don’t want to assume this without trying it. I’ve had two sandwiches today and must say that it was great to have my taboule and hummus in a different form! But the bread itself is a bit bland. I don’t think it will create any cravings.

BREAKFAST

Raw Sharp Cheddar Cheese, Organic Valley, 2 oz

Flax Seed Crisps, RAW, Mauk Family Farms, 0.5 oz

Small Banana 6″, 1 serving

LUNCH

Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted Grain Bread, 2 serving

Avocados, California (Haas), 0.25 fruit without skin and seeds

Baba Roasted Garlic Hummus, 4 tbsp

Taboule Salad, 4 tbsp

Romaine Lettuce (salad), 1 inner leaf

DINNER

Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted Grain Bread, 2 slices

Hummus, 1/4 c cup

Romaine Lettuce (salad), 1 inner leaf

Avocados, California (Haas), 2 oz

Taboule Salad, 4 tbsp

SNACKS

SNACKS

Banana, fresh, 1 small (6″ to 6-7/8″ long)

Mangos, 0.8 cup, sliced

Raw Cheddar Cheese, 2 oz

Celery, raw, 2 stalk, medium (7-1/2″ - 8″ long))

Total calories

CALORIES 1,601 CARBS 177 FAT 73 PROTEIN 64

My Nutrition Lesson for Today

Today was quite a day of learning for me. First, I’ve decided to not buy any more raw cheese because I believe it keeps me wanting to eat even when I’m not really hungry (of course I’m using this as an excuse to eat up all the remaining cheese quickly!) Secondly, I’ve been doing more reading about nutrients and, despite my skepticism about the raw food information out there, some of the things I’m reading really appeal to me. Since I’m no expert, there’s no guarantee that the information that appeals to me is any better than the information that doesn’t! However, with so much opposing and incomplete information out there, I am just going to continue to trust my own common sense and my body.

Informative Site #1

In my continued quest to learn about calories, fat and protein intake, I stumbled across Dr. Douglas Graham’s website, which advocates that one eats 80% of your calories from carbs, 10% from protein and 10% from fats (.80-10-10 plan, or 8-1-1). If I eat 1800 calories a day, this would mean 357 grams of carbohydrates, mainly in the form of fruit. I would eat only 20 grams of fat, in the form of nuts, seeds and from fruit such as avocados. As for protein, I would only need 45 grams, and would get that from the fruit as well as from vegetables- mainly in the form of a large salad, which would also provide minerals such as calcium, sodium and magnesium. You can read about this plan (and other raw info) at http://www.foodnsport.com.

Informative Site #2

I’m not sure how such a menu would work for me. For one thing, fruit is more expensive than vegetables. For another, I don’t know that fruit would make me feel full enough. These concerns were addressed at another website which provided a personal account of one woman, now in her late 40s (and looking very healthy!) during her transition to raw foods. Reading her site, I gained more confidence in doing my own thing on this odyssey. Her site is Raw School: http://www.rawschool.com.

These sites have motivated me to make some changes: I’m going to transition towards lower amounts of fat in my diet, even though previously I wasn’t worried about a raw diet of 50% fats. I think I will also ease toward the 80-10-10 way of eating to see what it’s like.

If you visit these sites (or already know about them), I’d love to hear what you think of them.

I’ve still got the munchies! I even briefly thought about how great it would be to have some Pepsi. But I’m not feeling any desire to eat or drink anything that’s not part of my eating plan right now. However, I have made other decisions: I have decided not to look for raw hummus as long as the hummus I’m eating now is working for me. Same with the taboule; if I have problems finding quinoa to sprout, it won’t bother me to stay with bulgar. The more I read about raw food, the more I realize that I have to do what works for me and to not get caught up in labels. Calling myself a raw foodist implies that everything I eat is raw, but I’m really eating just mostly raw. I can’t say what percentage raw I eat because I don’t know what standards raw foodists use to label themselves, and I’m not really interested in fitting into a label.

It’s hard to not get caught up in labels like “vegetarian” and “vegan” and “raw foodist” when, instead of labeling our behavior, we label ourselves! Just now I rewrote some of my previous sentences because I realized I had said things such as, “what percentage raw I am ” instead of “what percentage raw I eat“. I can see why some raw foodists, vegetarians and vegans become strident; many of them identify with what they eat. They feel compelled to personally defend their way of eating because they are actually defending their own identities. This doesn’t apply to all people who commit to particular eating styles, but it certainly applies to many I’ve come across on the internet. For some raw foodists (and vegetarians and vegans) this way of eating is part of a spiritual endeavor, making it even more understandable why, for some, it is part of their identity. For me, because I’ve had food “issues” for much of my life, calling myself something based on my eating behavior doesn’t feel good, so I want to stay away from that. I’m sure I’ll lapse often (I haven’t read over my past posts to see how often I may have labeled myself), so it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out over time.

Well, enough of my opinions on that topic! Here is what I’ve eaten so far. Oh- I remembered that during my day of munchies yesterday I had a mango close to midnight. I have therefore added that to today’s snacks. Today I purposely had a piece of fruit for breakfast, as I’d decided to do earlier. It worked fine today, although my snacking increased my calories this evening.

>BREAKFAST (around 9:45 a.m.)

1 banana

LUNCH

1/2 Avocado

Green Giant Spring Mix Salad, 1 cup

Baba Roasted Garlic Hummus, 1/2 c

Taboule Salad, 1/2 c

DINNER

1/2 Avocados, California

2 leaves romaine lettuce

Baba Roasted Garlic Hummus 1/2 c

Taboule Salad, 1/2 c

SNACKS

Raw Sharp Cheddar Cheese, Organic Valley, 1 oz

Apple

Organic Raw Black Sesame Tahini (Living Tree), 1 tbsp

Flax Seed Crisps, RAW, Mauk Family Farms, 1 oz

Goji Berries, dried (Himalania) 1/2 tbsp

Mango

Total calories

CALORIES 1,726 CARBS 213 FAT 73 PROTEIN 49

I ate a lot more calories today. I guess I had the munchies! The fact that I ate my first meal before 10 means I had more hours to eat, though. It’ll be interesting to see how my week turns out weight-wise this week. I’m happy that I am bringing my protein up; I noticed that goji berries have a lot of protein, and I had nuts today, which also helped. I just need to start drinking more water. I find that it takes me hours to drink 16 oz sometimes. Maybe I’ll add lime wedges or something to make it more inviting. Other than the higher calories, today was an uneventful, decent day.

I got a tip from Ren that the light patches on either side of my mouth might have been related to the citrus I was drinking, as citrus can have a bleaching effect. That sounds like very sensible reasoning. I let up on the citrus this week and the patches seem a bit darker and smaller today. I hope I don’t forget to buy straws, as I really enjoy my orange and pomegranate juice mix.

I’m exited to start classes next week. I think eating raw will make life easier. Salads travel well, as do fresh fruits, veggies and nuts. I’m so happy to not have to worry about what to eat while I’m out. I’m sure I’ll have some things to get used to - like how much food to take with me- but at the moment things look very doable.

>BREAKFAST (around 9:45 a.m.)

1 small mango

1 tbsp Organic Raw Black Sesame Tahini (Living Tree)s

4 tbs Taboule Salad

.75 oz. Flax Seed Crisps, RAW, Mauk Family Farm

LUNCH

1/4 c Baba Roasted Garlic Hummus

1/2 c Taboule Salad

1 tbs goji berries

2 romaine lettuce leaves

DINNER

3 tbs guacamole

1/2 c Baba Roasted Garlic Hummus

1/2 c Taboule Salad

2 romaine lettuce leaves

2 tbsp sprouted fenugreek

1/3 italian tomato

SNACKS

1 oz raw cheddar

1 tbs goji berries

1 oz raw trail mix

4 wedges watermelon

Total calories

CALORIES 1,979 CARBS 272 FAT 73 PROTEIN 62

I spent much of my day researching facts about protein. My goal is to increase my protein without severely increasng my fat intake. I also thought I should try not to increase my carbs any more than the level they are currently at. At Whole Foods I looked at various nut mixes, but found it hard to find nuts that don’t have almost 3 times as much fat as protein. I did find a nut mix that had 11 grams of fat for every 5 grams of protein, but it wasn’t raw. I looked at some online sources which tout vegetables as great sources of protein for raw foodists. Did you know you could get 131 gms of protein if you ate 50 cups of raw broccoli? Good thing I’m not striving for that much protein in a day! My research for my perfect sources of protein continues…

Today’s meals

BREAKFAST (around 9:45 a.m.)

1/2 medium avocado

1 large mango

1/2 c Baba Roasted Garlic Hummus

1/2 c Taboule Salad

2 Romaine lettuce leaves

LUNCH

1/3 pomegranate (in the form of juice) + juice of tangerine

1 tbsp Organic Raw Black Sesame Tahini (Living Tree)

Flax Seed Crisps, RAW, Mauk Family Farm

DINNER

1/2 medium avocado

1/4 c Baba Roasted Garlic Hummus

1/2 c Taboule Salad

2 Romaine lettuce leaves

SNACKS

1 oz raw cheddar

Watermelon, 4 wedges

Total calories

CALORIES 1,778 CARBS 222 FAT 72 PROTEIN 50

Today was a good day, but I ate taboule and hummus for every meal! That’s a bit extreme. On the good side, though, I brought up my level of protein and lowered the fat (no avocados today). The black sesame tahini and the hummus help a lot with giving me protein without goo gobs of fat grams.

Today I made more taboule. It’s amazing how much cheaper it is to make your own, and how great it tastes. This time I mixed cilantro and parsley for a different flavor and it got rave reviews. I soaked the bulgar but it’s still a bit crunchy. Tomorrow it’ll be great. I know bulgar isn’t raw, but as I think I mentioned in a previous post, I’m gonna use all the bulgar up before switching to quinoa.

BREAKFAST (around 10:30 a.m.)

Organic Raw Black Sesame Tahini (Living Tree), 1 tbsp

.75 oz. flax seed crisps

15 Cherries

1/2 c Baba Roasted Garlic Hummus

1/4 c Taboule Salad

1/3 medium cucumber

Centrum vitamin

LUNCH

1/2 cup Baba Roasted Garlic Hummus

1/4 c Taboule Salad

1 oz. Flax Seed Crisps

1 tbsp Organic Raw Black Sesame Tahini (Living Tree)

1 oz raw milk Cheddar Cheese

DINNER

1/2 c Baba Roasted Garlic Hummus

1/4 c Taboule Salad

Total calories

CALORIES 1,345 CARBS 118 FAT 58 PROTEIN 52

NUTRIENTS

Calories…………………….ranged from 1500 to 1800

Water………………………..average= 6 glasses a day.

An average of 42% of my calories came from fat

An average of 46% came from carbs

An average of 12% came from protein

WEIGHT LOSS

STARTED WEEK AT: 341

ENDED WEEK AT: 325

TOTAL POUNDS LOST: 16

SUMMARY OF CHANGES NOTICED THIS WEEK

1) Tongue was coated with some sort of brownish/greenish layer I had to brush off. This lessened during the week but I’m left often with a strange feeling that something is on the back of my tongue- like when the skin from a bean lies flat on your tongue and you can’t get it off easily!

2) The diarrhea that started on day 3 still hasn’t abated totally, but I have had no more stomach pain, just an occasional stitch in my lower right abdomen.

3) I felt queasy one day and couldn’t pinpoint the reason, although I, probably unfairly, associate it with the raw cauliflower I had that day since it was so unpleasant to eat. The second time I felt ill was when I drank that Kombucha gingerade. I still haven’t finished the bottle (nor have I eaten raw cauliflower again).

4) My eyes usually water for a while every morning, as if I’m crying. This has lessened to either: no tearing, much-shortened tearing episodes, absolutely no tearing (a couple of mornings).

5) I’m in a better mood than I have been in a long time. Although not a huge change, it’s a glimmer of hope.

6) I’ve been free of compulsive eating all week- this removes a large amount of stress from my life.

7) My face developed two small patches with lighter pigmentation, one on each side of my mouth. This hasn’t changed in the 24 hours sinced I noticed it.

8) My skin is less alligatory - this is likely due to the huge increase in the amount of water I drink.

FOODS CONSUMED

Goji Berries

Kombucha Gingerade (Never again. Never, ever again).

Black sesame tahini - still don’t know how to use it. I just eat it as-is.

Raw sharp cheddar (Fiscalini)

Raw Trail Mix

Sea Salt

Flaxseed crackers - good for dip and to smear with the black tahini.

Sprouted fenugreek - very bitter. I might not buy this again.

taboule - has become a staple.

banana

cherries

papaya

Hummus - another staple in my diet, although I haven’t tried any raw kinds yet.

alfalfa sprouts

avocados - yet another staple, contributing to my high-fat raw diet!

cabbage- tried it once but didn’t really like it as a wrap because cabbage is bitter.

cilantro- I just love cilantro. I could just bury my face in it and inhale all day.

cucumbers - these went into my taboule, but I also sliced them and piled them with hummus and taboule.

limes - for dressing and also for the guacamole.

parsley - for the taboule

jicama- I didn’t like this. I tried to use it like a cracker. I may buy it again for salad.

extra virgin, first cold pressed olive oil

pine nuts- boring.

red onions

Bob’s Red Mill bulgar- I’ll probably try sprouted quinoa when this bag runs out.

garlic - Another favorite. I love everything about garlic except biting into a raw clove (ouch!!)

1 pomegranate- this is a new favorite of mine. Too bad they are so expensive.

apples - I’m not an apple fan, but they are convenient.

orange- I do not like citrus, but orange juice is bearable.

tomatoes- a staple.

cauliflower- Can you say B I T T E R? Ugh.

tahini - I don’t like it too much, but enough to keep experimenting with it.

FOODS I DIDN’T EAT

red bell pepper - it went bad

a small watermelon- it was in bad shape when I bought it (I’m not good at choosing melons)

a “young” coconut - it went bad and shot coconut water onto my kitchen counter!

sun-dried tomatoes- don’t know what to do with them yet

Mango- not ripe yet

Organic Wild Rice - don’t know what to do it yet

sprouted mixed beans-don’t know what to do them yet

Veganaise- shouldn’t have even listed this- I’m not gonna eat it! My friend will use it.

ROUNDUP

It’s funny; I began the week feeling some trepidation about raw food- can I live on taboule every daggone day? How come raw food has to be so bitter? But my tastes are already adjusting to the bitterness of such things as sprouted seeds and tahini, and I really like taboule. In fact, I think that as long as I make the taboule a bit different each time, I won’t get tired of it. I’ve had new textures and flavors, some good, some not so good. I haven’t gone through “detox”, unless you want to call the skin thing and the diarrhea detox. I don’t. I haven’t had any major cravings (except a short-lived one for salt early on) or desires to binge.

I will need to learn how to buy food when it’s ripe or almost ripe so that I can time when to eat them, rather than wasting money on veggies and fruits gone bad. Some of my uneaten items will need to be incorporated into meals or recipes of some kind and just haven’t found anything I like yet. I’m looking forward to eating that mango!

I think my fat intake is too high, but since I lost 16 lbs this week (a record for me!!) I’m not gonna complain right now. I do need to work on finding ways to bring up my calcium and B12. For now I’m taking Centrum. (That Kombucha tea has some b-12 in it, for those of you who are interested).

Conclusion: This week gets a thumbs up!

I thought I would provide more specific information about a typical eating day for me, this first week of raw food. Today was typical insofar as what I ate; it differs only in that I didn’t eat breakfast until noon, so it was more like a brunch. My “lunch” was small enough to qualify as a snack. After dinner I had another snack. Snacks are typical for me.

CHANGES for day 7

I have noticed another change since starting the raw life: today I noticed that my face has two patches of lighter pigmentation, one on either side of my mouth. What the heck is that about?? I have medium/dark skin, so it’s very noticeable to me, although my friend didn’t notice it until I pointed it out to her. This should be interesting.

I also have a “stitch” in my lower right side. Could be part of my digestive issues. My diarrhea lessened greatly yesterday but I’m not totally in the clear today.

OK, on to the meals!

BREAKFAST (around noon!)

Organic Raw Black Sesame Tahini (Living Tree), 1 tbsp

1/2 Papaya

8 Cherries

Lettuce

1/2 c Baba Roasted Garlic Hummus

1/2 Taboule Salad

1 tbsp dried Goji Berries (Himalanian brand)

Centrum vitamin (’cause I’m coming up low in calcium and other nutrients)

LUNCH

1 oz. Raw Trail Mix (Mauk Family Farms)

(That was more like a snack, wasn’t it?)

DINNER

Lettuce

1/2 c Baba Roasted Garlic Hummus

1/2 c Taboule Salad

1 oz raw Cheddar Cheese

SNACK

Raisins, 1 small box (1.5 oz)

Raw Trail Mix (Mauk Family Farms), 0.5 oz

Total Nutrients

CALORIES 1,414 CARBS 167 FAT 54 PROTEIN 52

Are you out there? It would be nice to exchange information and experiences. Although many of our issues are no different from those of non-African Americans, some issues are specific to culture, or to health issues such as changes in skin and hair. It would be nice to exchange information and support. And if such an active place already exists, hook us in!!

:-D