April 2012 - 30 Day Raw Food Challenge - Join ANY day of the month!!!

[Traceyraw]

Good Morning Everybody.
Raw Olympia Sounds like detox. Hang in there it will pass and you will feel better.

I must be very toxic. I got hit by a bus last night ( detox bus). Sweated all night woke up with a headache, back ache and sinuses draining. I know I will feel better when the toxins are gone.

This morning I had a chocolate smoothie. Sunflower seed milk, 2 bananas, agave, raw chocolate powder. So creamy and yummy like a chocolate shake.

snack I have Kale chips and flax seasame cookies. Lunch we are having a party so big salad for me.
Dinner I bought honeydew and watermelon. I will blend one of those tonight.

Have rawsome day. Remember detox is temporary and benefits are a lifetime.

[Lucy76]

Hello everyone!
RawOlympia, if you had too many nuts yesterday, this may be why you're not feeling so well. Too much fat can make you feel drained.
Or it could be detox. Either way I hope you feel better.

Today I had:
breakfast: 1L of carrot juice, 1L of spinach and orange juice
4 bananas, a few strawberries
lunch: huge green salad with avocado and buckwheat sprouts
a few dried figs, some olives
3-4 pizza crackers
dinner: 1L of sesame seed mylk banana, chia seeds, raspberries and pea protein smoothie

that's all folks

[TheRawPilgrim]

MY VITAMIX CAME TODAY!!!!!! Oh I LOVE it! So far I've made a cashew/vanilla shake, a green smoothie, warm cream of celery soup and strawberry banana ice cream! Not only did I love everything, so did my kids! They are all excited about eating raw (they eat raw with me during the day then for supper they have a choice between what I'm eating and what I'm cooking for dh. Tonight 2 out of 3 chose to eat my raw soup .

[LexieW]

Hi there,

I'm LexieW, and this is my first post in this forum. I've been between 50% and high raw for about 2 years, and have decided it's time to finally go high raw and make it a permanent lifestyle.

I have a feeling this forum and all the posts by you wonderful, inspiring people is going to help me get over the detox/new habits phase.

I'll officially start my challenge in May, but I just couldn't wait! I had to get in here and thank you all for the excellent recipes and inspiration

See you all on the boards!

[triciaRAW]

Hi all!

Finally a day with no detox symptoms. I have to work a weird shift tonight at midnight however so i hope that doesn't mess with my rest. I felt awesome today!!! those 3 detox days were horrible! i hope its gone for now...I felt good and hungry, no headache, my run was great, i wasn't cranky, no nausea (which was the worst...) and I had energy to spare.

So I got motivated and made some neat things while I worked from home.

I hammered open a thai coconut, drank the water and ate some of the meat.

I made a Carrot Cake mash: carrots, dates, coconut, raisins, cashews, pumpkin spice, nutmeg

I soaked a portabella mushroom in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, some of my dressing and pepper and ate it with spinach.

I shaved a zucchini in to noodles and made a pesto with pine nuts, basil, oil, and hot pepper, and tomatoes.

I also snacked on dried pineapple, an apple, some salad with chia seeds and pumpkin seeds.

My boyfriend offered me a small bite of his sandwich. I didn't even want it...I had no desire. It smelled weird.

So horray for RAW!
Tricia

[Alby]

i am kinda new to raw but ive been reading a ton of books about it and i really want to do this challenge next month. any suggestions on how to stay away from temptations and stick with only raw food? im going to do a juice cleanse until the first of may to help get me started, is this a good idea?

[LexieW]

Abby, the best way to start is one that feels natural to you. A lot of people ease in with juice fasts, and find that it helps speed up the resetting of your metabolism, tastebuds, etc. It's also easier than a straight water fast. A lot of people find that they aren't even really hungry! You will be getting so much nutrition that those sudden, urgent needs for food just don't appear. You may, however, miss the feeling of gnawing on something. I find melon to be helpful, in that case, or any other type of really juicy fruit.

As far as staying away from temptations - know what your cravings are (sweet? salty? crunchy?) and be prepared. I crave sweets and chocolate, so I often make chocolate ice cream out of cacao powder and a frozen banana, or raw brownies from cacao powder, dates, and nuts. Try out a few simple recipes and keep the ingredients onhand, so you can whip up a treat really quickly at home.

Good luck, see you in the May thread!

[effortlessvegan]

Hoping to join next month's challenge. I have been raw for awhile but we have been away for the month of April in Europe where it was quite a challenge to eat raw but I did manage quite well considering. I am looking to get back on track at 100%. I've done a number of these challenges and have enjoyed sharing with everyone.

[robh]

Hi everyone. Congrats on the progress!

I am still raw. The weekend is upon us so I will find out how strong my resolve is. Anyway, I don't have much time this morning.

Keep up the fight everyone. :)

[Traceyraw]

Welcome New Rawbies. I am so glad your here to share.

Pilgrim: Love that you love your Vitamix. I am loving mine right now too.
Tricia: I am glad no detox. your food sounds amazing.
Hello to all challengers.

I am no prepared today I do have a banana: Last night I made a smoothie of Honeydew and cucumber it was very refreshing.

I have Kale chips dehydrating. I plan making so much stuff this weekend for next week. I lost 2 1/2 lbs this week I really wasn't going to weigh myself but I just felt lighter.

Detox is hitting me hard. I was sweating all night long. I plan on water till lunch time to speed it up and get it over with.

Have a rawesome day.

[RawOlympia]

Pilgram congrats on your first weeks results :) Tracey, I think you were right and it was a detox which is weird because I have done two 1 week stints in which I was raw for a week and the other juiced for a week and didn't have it. I guess I was long overdue for it lol.

I felt really bad yesterday so I kept it light with juicing until I actually had an appetite in the afternoon. I discovered these raw macaroons at whole foods called Hail Merry. really really yummy. For dinner I had bruschetta on jicama slices (really good) and a bit of raw nut free ice cream. I belong to Philip McCluskey's newsletter and the recipe was just sent out the other day. Highly recommended but stick to one batch, I doubled it and 1 batch would have been fine for me and the kidlets since it is very rich. Here's my tweeking of their recipe...

Raspberry Sorbet
Ingredients:
1 large avocado
juice from 1 lime
2 cups of frozen raspberries
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Agave nectar to taste

Run in food processor until the consistancy of gelato.

I had leftovers and didn't know if I should freeze them or stick them in the fridge (half out of my head yesterday from lack of sleep lol) so I split the leftovers to see what would happen...fridge it is!

I'm going to start looking for some of my favorite snacks online to see if I can get them cheaper.

[Alby]

hi guys, im very new to this, despite reading a bunch of books about raw. do yall know of any really easy starter raw recipes for a very much beginner at raw meal prep?? pasta would be a big deal for me for a cooked meal.

[RawOlympia]

Hi Alby,

My favorite to date (and it's a hit with the kids too) is Chocolate Pudding. We call it Breakfast Pudding around here because I let them eat it for breakfast if they want lol. The Raspberry Gelato I posted yesterday came out really good too. I made a raw corn chowder tonight but I think it needs tweaking a bit before I'd post that because it wasn't that good following the recipe I had for it.

Chocolate Pudding

2 avacados (remove pit and scrape out avacado)
2 peeled bananas
1/3 cup raw cocoa
1/3 cup agave nectar (more or less)

Put everything into the food processer using the S blade (I heard you can use a blender too, but haven't tried that) and run it until smooth. Keeps a few days in the fridge. I try not to eat it too late in the day because raw cacao jacks me up like coffee.

This Kale Salad is really good too.


APPLE & KALE SALAD
Salad Ingredients
1 bunch Kale (organic if possible)
3 Granny Smith or green apples
1 cup raw walnuts, soaked in water for 4 or more hours
½ cup dried currants, or craisens

Dressing Ingredients
¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup agave nectar
juice and zest of ½ lemon
1 Tablespoon Apple Cider vinegar
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
Directions
Separate Kale from the stems and tear into bite sized pieces.
Slice the apples ¼ inch thick and place into a bowl of cold water and the juice of half a lemon
Combine all the ingredients for the dressing and whisk together
Pour over the kale, and using your hands, massage the dressing into the kale leaves softening them in the process.
Drain the water off the apples and walnuts, add them along with currants to the kale and toss.

[RawOlympia]

Still not as hungry today but feeling a lot better than yesterday since I slept from 11pm until 7am. I did wake up a 4:30a with a headache but 1 advil pm knocked me right out again and took care of the headache too. I must be detoxing because I am breaking out like crazy.

Breakfast: strawberry, kiwi, mango and lettuce smoothie
Lunch: bruschetta on jicama, some nuts, some granola
Dinner: raw corn chowder, some salad, and a bit more bruschetta.
Possibly later I might have some more of that raspberry gelato I made yesterday.



I think tomorrow will be a mainly juicing day because I'm still not eating all that much and I have a ton of lettuce that I want to juice before it goes bad. Why is it I eat salads just fine (big ones too!) when I buy the smaller container of lettuce, but when I get the big container of lettuce, I end up barely eating it? Going back to the smaller containers from now on.

[Alby]

thanks rawolympia, i will definitely try those. im going to try to do a three day juice fast (at least three days) before the start of the may challenge. i really need this, my body is just horrible and i know ill feel better if i can do this. wish me luck.