Jan 2012 - 30 day raw food challenge JOIN ANYTIME OF THE MONTH

[donnyandcathy]

TraceyRaw
Thanks for the info. on Hypo. I will have to look it up.
I did the very high fruit raw diet almost 3 years ago, and that's when I felt my best. I ate so much fruit, and had so much energy. I kept loosing weight
even with all the high calorie fruit. I still feel better when I eat a high fruit diet, but during the winter it is so hard to find fresh ripe fruit.
Once spring and summer get here that's what I plan on going back to. I guess I could live off bananas in the winter ;)

[Traceyraw]

http://www.vega-licious.com/health-n...ism-naturally/

Cathy, I found the link for that website. Hope it helps.

[donnyandcathy]

YES, I have talked with Elena!! We have been e-mailing back and forth.
She is an awesome example of curing a disease on a plant based diet. She is not all raw, but still cured her
hypothyroid, pituitary disorder, and was able to become pregnant!!
She has some great articles on her website, and also has a facebook page.

[donnyandcathy]

Made it through another birthday party!! I wasn't sure about doing the raw challenge for Jan. because we had 3 Birthday dinners, 1 going away party, and
an anniversary to celebrate. I made it through all of them and stayed raw!!
I won't say that it wasn't hard, and that I didn't get a little jealous when we went out to eat and the cooked foods smelled so good, and I sat there and ate my salad. I also made 2 birthday cakes, and didn't even lick the bowl once YAY!! That is a miracle for me ;)

I know I need to get back to my green juices and my green smoothies because I feel better when I juice and when I eat more fresh greens and not just
kale chips. I need to get to the store to stock up on juicing produce. I guess I have been finding comfort in the raw comfort foods and not really eating
for health and nutrition.
If it was summer I don't think I would be having as much of a problem, but oh well, I need to grow up and deal with the cold weather ;)

Chia Pudding, Lucuma Powder, Banana
Sprouted Buckwheat Granola
Eggplant Bacon (I had made some for my mom so I made me some too)
Longhorn Steakhouse Salad. They made me a big salad with the mixed field greens, grapes, pecans, oranges, strawberries, I brought my own avocado,
and my own homemade raw ranch. It was really yummy, but I was so tempted with the nice hot bread basket But, I didn't cave!!
Came home and had some raw Cacao Hemp Butter to help my sweet tooth after watching everybody eat the cake I made for my Momma.

Overall a good day, but really need to get back to the juicing and smoothies!!

Hope everyone else had a great day!!
Cathy

[qwerty988]

Congratulations on making it through your celebration dinners this month cathy!! Those can be ROUGH. How'd your mom like the eggplant bacon? (I found liquid smoke at the store, by the way, can't wait to try!!)

Tracey, good luck with your higher fruit regimen. I've never tried that and am psyched to see how it works for you!

I'm starting a juice fast today, so yesterday I ate A LOT hahahhahaa:

one quart orange/grapefruit juice
two bananas
green smoothie w cashews, spinach, bananas and spirulina
walnut pate, sprouts and avocado in green cabbage leaves
nori rolls w avocado, sprouts and lettuce w wasabi dipping sauce
snacking on lots of fresh coconut meat

I'll be back when my fast is done, however long it lasts! I'd like to do at least 3 days. We'll see.

Have a RAWESOME day everyone!!

[Traceyraw]

Good Morning Everybody. Qwerty enjoy your fast I hope to join you soon.
I made a new plan for myself. I will let everybody know how it works next week. I think that could be a fair judgement.
Cathy great job on the party we are having a pot luck today so Here is what I am doing to survive. I made a huge homemade fruitpunch and boy is it ever good. Pineapple,apple, strawberries,blueberries,oranges, grapefruits, and grapes. Yummy.
Then I just cut up the same fruits for a huge huge fruit salad. I gave my friend a ton of veggies to make a salad. Im excited there is so much fresh raw stuff. Besides I marked up the sign and put HEALTHY really big on the top.

I messed up a little this month so Im at 3lb total weight loss. Ill do better now.

[Lucy76]

Hi everyone.

I'm feeling a little down today. The last few days it's really difficult for me to stay raw. I haven't had anything cooked, but my cravings are so strong, I just keep thinking about food all day. Why is this happening? The first couple of weeks I felt great, and didn't even feel the need to eat anything cooked.
Today I had mostly crackers and kale chips, some fruit, and a raw chocolate bar. I did have my usual carrot juice in the morning. I always enjoy that, always!

I'll try to have more fruit and salad tomorrow... Why have my cravings gotten so strong?? I hope I can at least make it until the end of the month...

Goodight people.

[qwerty988]

I'll try to have more fruit and salad tomorrow... Why have my cravings gotten so strong?? I hope I can at least make it until the end of the month...

Are you having enough fats? I get constantly hungry and craving food if I don't.

[donnyandcathy]

Lucy, I am right there with you, BUT we can do this!!!

So far today I had a Chia Pudding with Lucuma Powder and a Banana.
HUGE Green Smoothie (like 48 oz) drank throughout the afternoon. It has an apple, mango, cherries, and enough raw spinach to feed an elephant :)
It has kept me full and satisfied.
A handful of red grapes.
I'm not that hungry right now and it's after 6pm. I may have another chia pudding before bed, or if I get real hungry I may fix a salad or eat some
of my guacamole with some carrot sticks. I will have to see what I feel like in a bit.
I'll update before bed.

[donnyandcathy]

For those wanting to experiment with making your own kale chips, I found a recipe that looks really good.
I got it off a blog called "A Life Unprocessed"
Here is the recipe for the "sauce"

The Sauce:
1 cubed sweet potato
1/4 c agave or honey
2 Tb raw coconut oil
1/4 c apple cider vinegar
2 t sea salt
3 cloves garlic
1/2-1 onion
1/4 c yeast
1/2 c water (more if needed to blend to creamy sauce)

A high speed blender is perfect for making this creamy sauce, but a having some chunks in there is totally fine, they will become very small in the dehydrator, so a standard blender will work as well. Blend all ingredients until creamy; pour over kale.

[donnyandcathy]

Decided to have guacamole and carrots. Then I ate some of the Kaia Kale Chips. They were the round flat kale chips, and I didn't care for them as much
as I did the kale "leaves" but they were still pretty good.
Do you find that if you eat something with a lot of fat, like avocado, guacamole, nuts, etc.. that you feel more hungry and start craving more fatty type
foods, and you can't get full or satisfied? I wonder why that is?
Hope everyone is hanging in there and having a good week.
Cathy

Add some grapes and raisins to my day :)

[Lucy76]

Are you having enough fats? I get constantly hungry and craving food if I don't.

I'm having lots of fats... maybe more than I should, I don't know.
I just find that after 17-20 days raw, it starts becoming really difficult with cravings. That's usually what happens when I'm on the 30 day challenge. I wonder if there's a reason for that.

I started the day today with a huge glass of carrot juice. I'll have some apple and spinch juice next.
Hopefully today will be easier than yesterday. I have some raw crackers and olives so those should get me through the difficult hours of the day

Thank you for the encouragement.

[Lucy76]

Today turned out to be a great day!
So I had my usual juice for breakfast, and then, a green smoothie for lunch, with spinach, bananas, apple juice, and flax seeds, and I also had some open faced sandwiches, with italian crackers, sliced tomato, alfalfa sprouts, and black olives.
For dinner I had chocolate chia pudding, bananas, and clementines.
The chocolate chia pudding was reaaaally yummy!

[Traceyraw]

Hey Lucy Im glad your having a better day. When I started my second juice fast I totally hit rock bottom emotionally. So here I am trying a fruit fast.

This morning I had
1 bag of grapes
3 bannanas.
chocolate chia pudding.
Dinner will be
3 oranges
1 apple
2 bannanas
I will be breaking it up though.

I am just concerned about the sugar but this is my experiment. Tomorrow I will definitely make my green juice. too busy today. Its our trip to the farmers market for the kids. Yeah. I need more grapes. Today I had lots of energy so hopefully I can hold out I have to work till 1130pm. YUCK.

Happy rawness.

[donnyandcathy]

Well, no green smoothie today or green juice
Here is what I had...
Chia Pudding with Lucuma Powder, and a Banana
a few hours later another chia pudding, same as above.
Raisins
Kale Chips from Kaia foods (amazing!!)
Sprouted Buckwheat Granola
Grapes
We had a busy day and company, so I ate quick and easy.