April 2011 - 30 Day Challenge Thread - Join anytime in April

[earthyeater]

@holistica, sounds good. I'll be watching.

Meal Plan
B: Not raw, 48oz water
S: Green Smoothie, 32 oz water
L: Sprouted lentil salad with avocados, 32 oz
S: Apple, Bananas, 32 oz water
D: Kale and Cranberry Salad, Broccoli and Corn Salad, 32 oz water

[Lady Green Jeans]

Haven't been posting but staying the 100% course and feeling great.
Made a couple recipes that I have grazed on a bit. The celeraic soup with truffles and the vegan bay crab cakes that I adjusted to my taste.

Today's eating:
B-carrots and radishes (kind of different)
L-salad with avo, cucumber, tomato, carrots, red cabbage, some green onions
S-red bell pepper
D-some avo left from lunch and the last of the crab cakes. Yum!

Love that I am feeling energetic and more centered. The excess weight is still dropping from my frame so that is a nice plus.

[Steven]

Todays eating:
GS- banana, pear, blueberry, bok choy, chia seed, date
Apples
Oranges
Bananas, clementines, & dates
Livin' Sprout "Sunny Garden Herb" crackers topped with cherry tomatoes and quinoa sprouts
Huge salad - baby romaine, quinoa sprouts, cucumber, carrot, red cabbage, radish

[meowimacat]

yesterday i had:
breakfast - chopped banana, dates and almond butter (this is my new favourite breakfast)
lunch - spicy guacamole and sprout salad. yum yum.
dinner - sunburger and salad
dessert - ice cream and raspberry sauce, ohhhh boy was this good! i am sure i could fool people into thinking this was real ice cream.

today:
breakfast - same as above
lunch will probably be a sprout salad and for dinner i am having fajitas, been craving these for days!!

[seRAWnity]

Hey Everyone, solid food is giving me stomach pains the past couple days, no other symptoms, so today I'm sticking with smoothies, letting my insides work themselves out :)

Yesterday was a tropical green smoothie for breakfast: pineapple, banana, kale, mango, papaya, and coconut. Lunch was a salad and dinner I had a handful of cauliflower popcorn but with the stomach issue I didn't want to eat anymore!

So today is a smoothie day!

[Clara Verde]

Feeling great. One highlight since last post has been kelp noodles w. sprouts & avocado & homegrown thyme/basil. Otherwise lots of grapefruits, smoothies, sprouts, raisins, and my daily staple of banana pudding w. hemp & coconut. Did some foraging today.
Regarding the sea spaghetti, I found it in a health food store, but I'm sure it's also available online. Sometimes I need to remind myself to try new things, and sea spaghetti has now been added to my list of favorite sea vegetables.
I appreciate & am inspired reading everyone's posts, sharing the journey.

[joyfulyogi]

Hi, everyone!

I'm new to the challenge, but not new to raw. The most committed I've been until this is about 90/10. I remember what my body feels like and how it performs while raw, and I am kicking myself for ever straying! It's hard to get back on that horse!

I'm on Day 2 and feeling really good. :)

[speltrong]

Hi all, I have been in Las Vegas and haven't checked in for a few days. I was worried I'd fall off the wagon when we were there, but we stuck to our guns and did really well. The first day we were there, we ordered room service and asked for a raw salad with no bread, meat, or cheese on it.. just raw veggies. They said it was absolutely no problem, but then delivered a salad that was loaded with chicken, tons of cheese, croutons, etc (and charged us $40 for it!!).. needless to say, we sent that back. But then we ended up finding several great places along the strip to find good salads, and also ate at a fantastic mex restaurant and had a chopped salad with pico de gallo and tableside prepared guacamole (so we knew there was nothing un-raw in it). Then our last day there, we hopped in a taxi and went to the raw cafe out by The Lakes. Had some really great food there, and even brought home a pack of raw tortillas to try doing some mex food at home. :-)

Since being home, we haven't faltered at all.. we're back to having our green smoothies in the morning, and then I usually prepare a recipe or two for dinner & lunch. This morning we had a smoothie with kale, pear, strawberry and banana. For lunch, we had notstickers (a recipe from alyssa's book) and they were AMAZING! And for dinner we're going to make a dish using kelp noodles.

So, we're feeling good, and I feel way victorious for not blowing it when we traveled. It gives me hope that I'll be able to stay on the wagon when we go to london next month. :-) Hope everyone else is doing well too!

[Moringa]

Hi all. I am a newbie, started raw on the 10th of April. I have been 100 Vegan for 8 months, with very few cravings....it's really been effortless, for the most part. I love to cook and have lots of vegan cookbooks, but I've only lost 20# since I've been eating too much fatty vegan grub from those books.

So then I decided to kick things up a notch, since I still have well over 100 pounds to lose. I figured raw was a good way to limit fats and lose this weight before I'm 100 years old.

And I'm having to tie myself down, practically, to keep from blowing it all. I have had no issues at all with vegan diet, but this raw thing is rough!

I am having plenty of green smoothies (already had a Vitamix), and lots of fresh fruit and salads. Yesterday I had an ounce of sprouted pumpkin seeds, but I want to minimize fats so I can get this weight off.

I am tracking my food in Fitday, and am getting 1200 calories average.....

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'd really like to make it through at least 30 days to see what I can do with this.

[speltrong]

Hi Moringa, welcome! I am in the same boat as you with the weight loss... I also have over 100 lbs to lose, and was struggling with doing that on a vegan diet. I've been raw since the beginning of this month and the weight is melting away.. and here's the interesting thing... I have been eating nuts and seeds and avocado! I also log everything I eat, and I try to limit fats, but in order to keep the raw diet interesting I realized that I really needed to include things like nuts and seeds and avo. So I started carefully adding them... always weighing them and being careful. I've even made some things in the dehydrator using nuts and seeds, and they're delicious! I definitely don't use oils.. but I do use whatever the oil would come from (olives, coconut, etc). The interesting thing is that the weight is still falling off. In fact, one day last week I did not eat any nuts or seeds, and I oddly didn't lose any weight that next day. So, I dunno what to say.. that certainly goes against everything I have been led to believe is true, but I am starting to really believe that there is a big difference in how the body processes raw vs cooked fats. So you might want to give that a try too and see how the scale reacts. It's baffling, but it is totally working for me! Plus, if eating nuts & seeds keeps you raw longer, it's totally worth it. :-) Good luck!

[meowimacat]

speltstrong - i lose more weight when i eat foods high in fat. one week i ate an avocado a day and thought eeeek, but i lost more weight that week than any other!! there is a good thread on the discussion area about good fats eliminating bad fats, read up about it - very interesting!

[holistica]

Look at that! We're halfway there, everybody!

Not eating today. About halfway through the day yesterday I decided to water fast today. Juices tomorrow and Sunday, then back on water Monday. I'd love to do water the whole 4 days, but I have to work the weekend.

[Moringa]

Thanks for the feedback and welcome, Speltrong! Cool about the avos. Glad the change to raw is working for you. I'm hoping to find success here as well.

I'll have to find that thread on good fats and read it, meowimacat. This is a huge site-so much information to take in. I look forward to learning more and experimenting with all my options.

[speltrong]

today I had a green smoothie for bfast (kale, banana, mango, strawberry), and then for lunch we fashioned these amazing tostadas using Alyssa's nacho cheese recipe and some raw tortillas that we found when we were in las vegas.. I am attaching a pic for your viewing pleasure. For dinner, it was pizza, with Alyssa's crust and her quick cheese blended with basil to give it an herby flavor. Pic also attached. I wouldn't normally eat this much food with this much concentrated nuts & seeds in a day, but I had to file our taxes today and this helped ease the depression of sending a $10K+ check to the govt. :-)

[Lady Green Jeans]

speltrong, pics look fantastic. Ouch on the tax bill!

Staying strong here and still kind of grazing on simple things like carrots with raw hummus or half an avo. Had some mango kombucha today--served it to myself in one of my wine glasses to feel fancy. Was nice since I don't use them for wine right now.

Today was weigh in and down a few more pounds. I am now 10 lbs. to my goal weight. My goal has been to feel better, be thinner and fully living each day as much as possible. I am getting better each day.

Hope you have all had a fantastic raw day.