Raw Odyssey

January 12, 2006

January 12- I’m Motivated to Make Some Changes!

Filed under: Journal, Resources, Changes — drallison @ 10:25 pm

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.

January 7, 2006

Jan. 7, day 7

Filed under: Journal, Food, Changes — drallison @ 9:11 pm

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

January 6, 2006

Raw Food and the Compulsive Overeater

Filed under: Changes — drallison @ 11:08 am

Someone posted on rawfoodtalk.com that the cleanup after fixing raw foods is frustrating. I had to laugh because one of the benefits rawfoodists often speak of when comparing cooked to raw is easier cleanup. I, too, beg to differ. Sure, if you grab produce and eat it as-is, there is little to worry about except the stems, seeds, pits, skin/peels or cores you toss out at the end. But for those of us who make juice or salsas and even more involved recipes, cleaning up juice, seeds and wet leaves can be time-consuming. And cleaning juicers and blenders is not fun! I don’t even own a juicer anymore but I remember how frustrating it was picking fibers out of the strainer and brushing little machine parts with a toothbrush- and then going through it again when I juiced in the evening. Although not having that equipment now means I can’t make some of the meals people write about, I still have cleanup to do- and not always in the kitchen. Apparently an errant watermelon seed reached the upstairs the other day. How, I don’t know.

In reading that forum post, I realized that although I don’t like cleanup, I do reap a benefit from it. I posted the following response:

“I also hate all the cleanup, but I tell myself that my time in the kitchen is a way to get to know the food I’m eating and a time for meditation (in the sense of just thinking about what I’m doing, living in the moment, etc.) something I never seem to find time to do, or forget to do regularly. Since I have to clean, I have a ready-made opportunity for meditation. When I ate before, I rarely even LOOKED at what I put in my mouth. All I cared about was the taste, the motions of eating, and the anxiety about getting to that last bite! Now I pay attention to my food from the time I take it out of the refrigerator to the last seed I pick up off the floor.”

Moving to a raw lifestyle doesn’t provoke solely physical changes. My old way of eating helped me in the avoidance of reality. Being depressed made me look at reality in a stark, defeatist way. So there I was, depressed because the world seemed bleak, hypocritical and hopeless, and trying to escape from that world through food. I didn’t pay attention to what I ate because that was depressing, too. I just stuffed myself and tossed out the wrappings.

Now that I don’t eat as much or as often, my day isn’t 85% filled with planning to snack, going to the store/restaurant, buying the food, imagining eating it, eating it, then feeling guilty about it. I’m not saying I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about food (after all, I’m just starting a brand new eating style) but there is no more guilt about what I eat, nor time, money and mental energy spent fantasizing about what flavor I might be in the mood for and running off somewhere to get that thing before the craving went away.

While bingeing and compulsive overeating has helped me to avoid dealing with my depression, the raw food plan is helping to remove that behavior as a barrier to good mental health. My depression isn’t cured just because I’m eating differently now; I merely escape through other means such as reading, listening to my iPod, and exploring the internet. My family would say I’m often not “present” - this is something I really need to deal with (but which I try to avoid because it adds to my negative feelings about myself). I believe that the removal of old eating behaviors which led to my excess weight and unhealthiness should go a long way towards making me feel successful, and therefore feel better about myself. The health improvements should make me more alert and energetic. With more vitality I’ll have more energy to tackle some issues head on. I know things could be much, much worse. I don’t know why I’m not dead- maybe I have good genes. But since I’m still alive, I have time to make things better for myself and for my loved ones who have stuck by me all this time.

So, you can see how a raw food diet is part of an overall, holistic journey back to health. I expect to make enlightening discoveries, meet interesting people and come ever closer to the type of person I want to be for the rest of my life. This is why I call it an odyssey.

January 4, 2006

Physical Changes as of Day 4

Filed under: Changes — drallison @ 4:57 pm

1) I noticed this morning that my tongue was coated with some sort of brownish/greenish layer. It didn’t taste weird or feel strange but it caught my eye and freaked me out a little. I’ve been brushing it off from time to time all day.

2) I’m experiencing a strange form of diarrhea - it started last night. It’s more gas than anything and not very productive. And what I do produce throughout the day (when it’s not “diarrhea”) is a brownish-greenish color.

3) During the early evening I felt queasy and thought I was going to throw up. I rested for a bit and then felt better. I’m not sure what that was all about.

4) My eyes usually water for a while every morning, as if I’m crying. I noticed yesterday and today that this hasn’t happened.

5) I weighed myself this morning- I didn’t expect to have lost anything, but I just wanted to do something. I found that I have lost TEN POUNDS. WOW! At my current weight, a large part of any initial weight loss is water, so I’m off to a good start.

6) I’m in a better mood today! Not a huge improvement, but every little bit counts.

THINGS THAT HAVEN’T CHANGED

1) Still sneezing in the morning
2) Still have back/neck/shoulder pain in the morning and slight headaches
3) Skin still alligatory

I’m a skeptic by nature, so I’m not expecting miraculous raw-food related changes such as those I’ve read about, but I will be open-minded about what I observe. People talk about going through detox, which involves symptoms of illness (headache, tiredness…) and then coming out of it feeling more vital and alert than ever. I’ve read where, after some time eating raw, people’s graying hair has return to its previous color, their eyesight improves, and their skin achieves a remarkable clarity and glow. Although I’m a skeptic, I’m going to document what I experience, as well as whether things feel good or not.

January 1, 2006

WHAT I STARTED WITH

Filed under: Fitness, Changes — drallison @ 12:01 am

These are the symptoms with which I’m starting the year

-Eyes water for a couple of hours each morning
-Stuffy nose/post-nasal drip
-Sneezing in the morning
-Sides of tongue hurt for days at a time
-Bad gums (probably gum disease)
-Stiff neck and back
-Blotchy complexion, some acne
-Low grade headache in morning, sometimes throughout day
-Severe lower back pain all the time
-Pain in knees
-Depression
-Low energy, low stamina
-Uneven sleeping patterns
-Often feel hot
-Very noisy digestive system
-chronically dry skin
-Resting heartrate = 80s and 90s
-341 pounds (about 200 lbs to lose)

EATING HABITS
-Few vegetables, almost no fruit
-High saturated fat and trans-fat
-LOTS of sugar and caffeine
-Hardly any water

FITNESS
-Fitness? What fitness? I can’t climb one short set of stairs without huffing and puffing. If I have to hurry down the street even a little, I’m breathing heavily for a ridiculous amount of time.

When I lost 200 lbs around the year 2000, I was walking 5 miles to work and back, playing racquetball, dancing, rollerblading, was going to the gym, biking, and taking a spinning class. My resting heart rate was in the high 30s and low 40s first thing in the morning. During the day my resting heartrate averaged in the low 60’s.