Raw Odyssey

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

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

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

I slept soundly- about 7 hours. My back hurt terribly upon waking up, though, making it difficult to enjoy lying in bed. I deal with this excruciating pain daily and am so used to it that I don’t even take pills. Alleve is the only thing that helps, but I don’t want to rely on it or continually cover up the pain. I’ll reach over and grab some only if the pain is so bad I cannot sleep or cannot get out of bed.

I had breakfast around 11:30: taboule blah blah blah. I was quite hungry. I added some sprouted fenugreek to it. Yikes- that stuff is bitter!! I only used a little. Since I’ve consumed all my pomegranate, I decided to have half of the papaya as my fruit for the morning. I’ve had 16 oz of water and I feel satisfied. Today my girlfriend is taking me to the Whole Foods Market so I can see it myself. I’m looking forward to asking questions and getting new raw food ideas.

WHOLE FOODS

Whole Foods Market was a lot like Wild Oats, Nature’s Bin and other whole food/health food stores. I liked it a lot. They have a wide variety of raw foods. Some of them were ridiculously expensive for my budget but there are a few items I might splurge for in the future. I wanted to find raw peanuts and cashews but the only raw nuts I saw were almonds, spanish nuts and pine nuts. I also hoped to get raw peanut butter but again, almond made up the only raw butter I could find. Here’s what I did buy:

Goji Berries ……………………..2.99 small package

Kombucha Gingerade……………….3.49 bottle

Veganaise (original)………………….3.99 jar

Black sesame tahini………………….8.99

Raw sharp cheddar (Fiscalini)……..3.23

I’m really excited about the cheese. I’m not sure that I’ll incorporate much cheese into my diet because I don’t want cravings for the kinds of stuff I used to eat. If I can handle it, maybe I’ll get it once in a while. The cheese we got was terribly expensive- over $10.00 a pound. The worker there was very kind about slicing off a very small piece for us, and also gave us a taste. YUMMY!! The initial taste is that of salt. My friend didn’t think it had a strong flavor beyond the salt, but I think there is a strong sharp flavor in there, which I loved.

I really didn’t want to get the tahini but it touted some health benefits and my girlfriend thought she might want to try it, too. She also convinced me to get the gingerade- whew, that stuff is lethal! Actually, it isn’t too bad, but it’s a bit tart (and fermented, so it is bubbly as well). I’ll post a taste-test on these items as we experience them. I bought the goji berries because I’ve read about them. I think it’s fun to try new things, whether or not they actually become a permanent part of my diet.

Well, it’s almost 4pm Pacific time- time for me to eat…something!

LUNCH: The usual hummus/taboule salad but I added an ounce of grated raw cheddar. I really loved that cheddar! The salad didn’t need it, but I needed an excuse to try out the cheese.

I noticed that I haven’t been putting my calorie intake down. Most days I’m between 1740 and 2000. I’ve never reached 2000 but I did eat only 1350 or so one day. That was too low, but over a week’s time things tend to average themselves out. My goal is to lose 2 lbs a week.

DINNER: Around 8pm I had dinner- guacamole and flaxseed crackers. Not exciting, but tasty. I drank the Kombucha and really couldn’t stand it. I diluted it by half with water and would you believe it didn’t change the taste AT ALL? My friend said it made her feel a little queasy after two gulps. I thought I felt a little ill as well. I tasted the black sesame tahini I bought at Whole Foods today so I could provide a better description, but I don’t know how to describe it…let’s see… it has an intense flavor and a slighly nutty background. It was bitter. I’m not sure how I will incorporate it into my meals, but I’m gonna give it a try. I also tasted the dried goji berries. Dry, they are sweet and bitter at the same time, with a fruit flavor. I soaked some in cool water for 30 minutes and tried those. My friend felt they had a very strong taste when soaked that she didn’t detect when they were dry (”funky strong” were her exact words). I thought they were sweeter when soaked, but that’s probably because they had plumped up so there was more surface to taste on my tongue. She wouldn’t eat them raw - probably not even with trail mix. but would bake them into something. I, on the other hand, could see them in cereal, either dry or soaked. Maybe I’ll add them to salads or to the raw nut trail mix we got yesterday.

Here’s the cost of some items from Whole Foods Market- a great resource for raw foodists.

People wonder what it costs to eat a raw food diet. As a beginner, I’m learning this myself. I try to get my foods as cheaply as possible, but someone bought some items as a surprise for me from the Whole Foods Market. They’re a bit expensive compared to the grocery store, and since I’m on a student’s budget I won’t be buying the more expensive stuff too often. However, it’s nice to see how much they cost:

Mango 2/3.00

Papaya 1.85

Organic Wild Rice 5.99 8 oz.

Raw Trail Mix 3.69 4 oz.

Sea Salt pouch 3.99

Flaxseed crackers 3.69

Sprouted fenugreek 1.99 8 oz.

sprouted mixed beans 1.99 6 oz.

Taboule salad 3.29 6 oz. (I have two- 6 oz is too small!)

Hummus 3.19 (pint)

I became so engrossed in a video project last night that I didn’t go to bed at all! Oops. I slept a few hours later during the day, however. I had breakfast around 8 a.m. - same stuff as usual, but 1/2 cup of hummus and taboule each rather than one cup.

Around 3 pm I had a snack of watermelon, but it was kinda old so I hardly ate any of it. About an hour later I had lunch - a banana, some cherries and some baby carrots. I’m soooooo tired of taboule and hummus! This meal seemed very discombobulated- nothing is related. The SAD (Standard American Diet) has gotten me used to “building a plate” of related foods, but who says you have to eat that way? My meal was semi-filling. Maybe I’ll learn to make raw peanut butter or something in the future. Around 5 I had a snack of jicama combined with taboule and hummus. I didn’t enjoy the jicama at all.

DINNER: 9 pm I had a salad. It had cucumber, tomatoes, a lettuce mix, and raw cauliflower. I made a dressing of tahini mixed with equal parts water, with garlic, coriander, cilantro and scallions. I don’t like the texture but I got the recipe off the side of the can. I don’t know if tahini is considered raw- it probably isn’t! I added lemon and a smidgeon of olive oil to make the salad more tasty but I can’t say I’m in love with this meal. In fact, I’m blogging instead of eating it. It looks pretty…. I added raisins and then grapes in last-ditch efforts to fix it up. I suppose in a few weeks I won’t think its so horrid but today it’s just not doing anything for me.

The good thing about eating this way is that with my foods limited, I can’t find some way to wheedle McDonald’s or Pepsi into my menu. If I were counting calories I’d find some way to fit Pepsi in, believe me! With a limited menu that isn’t especially inviting right now, I eat when I’m hungry and that’s it. I hope to actually enjoy my meals as I get used to this, but if a limited diet keeps me from eating poorly, I’m all for it. Gotta do what works for you!

This morning I woke up with my usual aches and pains- headache, stiff neck and shoulders, terrible pain in my lower back. I got up at 9:30 - about 1/2 hour earlier than usual (I’m on winter break).

Around 11:30 I had my first meal: about 3/4 cup of hummus, a cup or so of my taboule, and some lettuce - the mesclun mix. To drink, I squeezed two oranges and mortar-and-pestled about 1/4 of my pomegranate. I combined the juices with a little bit of cold water. DELICIOUS!! I only got about 1/3 of a cup out of the deal, though. I am now drinking my first 2 cups of water of the day. I’m very bad about drinking water. I had maybe three cups of water yesterday. I expect to go through caffeine withdrawal starting today because it’s my second day without Pepsi. I tend to get a bad headache and feel as if I have a cold. I have no such symptoms yet but the day is still young.

When I get some money I will have to get one of those hand citrus juicers, but I’m not sure what to use to get the juice from a pomegranate without wasting a lot of it. Live and learn, I guess.

LUNCH (2 pm- and I was hungry!): 2 medium cabbage leaves to use a wraps, tabouleh, avocado and alfalfa sprouts in each wrap. I also finished my water- I’m a slow drinker. The meal was rather blah, so I added a bit of salt which improved things greatly. Eventually, however, I’ll have to lay off the salt altogether.

SNACKS: I had three snacks today: a banana, 1/4 cup of pine nuts, and an apple. Before each snack I had a slight headache from hunger. I have doubts that my meals are going to be filling enough for me. I really fear hunger because I don’t want it to tempt me into my old way of eating.

9:30 pm: DINNER: tabouleh, avocado slices, lettuce, hummus and bean sprouts. What really made the meal delicious was that I added some salt (again). I almost craved the salt- I felt that I really needed to consume it. Maybe it was just my imagination. Anyway, I have had 6 cups of water (yaay!) and almost 1800 calories. I might eat again if I’m still hungry, although I really shouldn’t since it’s past 10 pm now and I wanted to stay below 1800. I refuse to go to bed hungry, though.

Today I bought the foods I planned to eat on my first week going raw. I spent $48, but $8.50 of that was a splurge for extra virgin olive oil “first cold press”. I am not going to be too strict about the raw thing at first, but I’ll be mostly raw this week (except for today because I had my annual good-luck blackeyed peas and cornbread for the new year!):

-alfalfa sprouts
-5 small avocados
-1 small head of cabbage
- 1 bunch of cilantro
-2 medium sized cucumbers
- 1 bunch parsley
- 1 jicama
-4 limes
-extra virgin, first cold pressed olive oil
- 1 bag pine nuts (probably not raw, but I didn’t know what to look for)
- 1 red bell pepper
- 2 red onions
- Bob’s Red Mill bulgar
-1 head cauliflower
-a slew of tomatoes
-8 oranges,
-a bag of apples
-a small watermelon
- a “young” coconut
-1 pomegranate
-sun-dried tomatoes
-garlic

I made tabouleh with bulgar, parsley, tomatoes, cucumber, garlic a bit of red onion (forgot to buy scallions) and a little lime juice. I will eat this with hummus I already have. I’ll also make salsa. I’ve used both of these as salad dressings in the past, and since I’ll be eating a lot of salads (I already have a Costco container of organic mesclun), both the salsa and taboule will be put to good use this week. I plan to make fresh squeezed orange juice- not much, but enough for a bit of juice each morning.

I’ve included a picture of the taboule below, but I’m new to this blog and don’t know how to make it show up properly.

http://drallison.mydietblogger.com/files/2006/01/thumb-1stTaboule-sm.jpg