Last half of June 30 day Challenge... 2012

[PansyLo]

Crystal2870: Frogspawn!! That made me laugh! I think even if your kids don't want to go 100% raw at least they have a great example in front of them and are getting to opportunity to learn more about different foods while they're young and slowly incorporate them into their diet. I think just the influence of you being there and doing something like this yourself but still allowing them to make their own decision is a great thing for them to have in their lives. If they do want to go raw it will be much easier for them, if they don't then they will at least have a generally much healthier diet and they'll have some of the knowledge to apply to their own diets.
I think it's very easy to make raw mustard yourself! It's something I googled at one point, I've never done it but you should have a look.

Robh: my mum is semi-supportive. She doesn't approve but is used to my diet changes. I went vegetarian at 14, vegan at 18, gluten free at 19, back to pescetarian+gluten free+dairy free at 19 while in recovery from an eating disorder, it has healthily varied since.
I don't think she minds what I'm eating as long as I am eating well but she doesn't actively support it as it seems extreme and strange to her. She's better at growing things than I am and sometimes helps with sprouts but then can be purposefully awkward at other times when she isn't in the mood for it.

I'm not sure what's holding me back. I'm unsettled and a lot has being going on in my personal life. I feel I don't have to be 100% as long as I am always working towards that aim but even then I haven't been giving it much of my time or attention.
I met up with some creative friends in my old city today, while through for hospital appointments, and their enthusiasm for their own goals has rubbed off on me a little!!

My mum is away on holiday so I have the space to experiment without judgement and hopefully get a bit more settled and move some of my belongings in. Maybe have some big steps forward this week.

[lynch]

That's good for both you. Good luck

[MysticTree]

MysticTree, thanks for the wild rice tip. I had no idea it was grass seeds. I am going to get some and start soaking.

Let me know how/if you like it :)

[MysticTree]

Yesterday bf forewent his usual 2x double espresso at a vegan cafe he goes to twice a week. Instead he chose a pear, ginger and hemp smoothie. I'm so proud of him!

We've been raw together for almost 4 weeks and I am starting to notice that our raw food tastes are diverging a little. Last night I ate way more than I wanted because we were eating raw together. In the past when he was eating sad and I was eating raw I would eat what I wanted and needed. I mentioned to him that I would probably be eating slightly different meals from him from now on.

I find it very interesting though. SAD eating is very much about eating what is put in front of you and is about everyone eating the exact same thing as each other. How silly is that and how odd that I should only really notice how silly it is whilst eating raw!

[robh]

Pansy, I know what you mean about being a healthy influence. I am the only raw foodist in my house, but I notice everyone is eating better: less fast food; less eating out, in general; everyone has a bit of salad at dinner time. Sometimes, I get a little too focused on that fact that my kids are eating wheat and animal proteins; I think so much so that do not notice that they are NOT eating (no fried foods, no processed foods, no take out, etc). Even if I am the only one doing it, at least I am impacting everyone's eating habits in a positive way. Best of luck getting on track with raw again.

MysticTree, I notice this too. There is a feeling of "community" and "togetherness" when everyone sits down and eats the same thing. Doing things together (not just eating) says "I like you and I want to share life's experiences with you." Sadly, I have noticed, when you start eating differently, it seems to sends a negative, anti-social message. In my case, I feel like I'm telling everyone: "I do not agree with what you are eating". In your case, maybe your nutritional needs are just different. The fact that you have adjusted your eating habits to match your BF sounds pretty natural to me. We all want to share life's experiences with those close to us. I find that sitting down to a television show together, playing a board game together or just doing anything together expresses the same community/togetherness vibe. That's so cool that you guys are raw together. Even if your raw is slightly different than his - just having someone close to you that's doing the same sort of thing you are provides a lot of support.

I liked the raw jicama last night. I have never had it before. It had a sweetness. It reminded me of a white, hearty carrot. The mexican flavors I added to it really didn't jive with the sweetness. I ended up adding guacamole to it. It turned out pretty good. I have more. I need to figure out some tasty flavor combos. I was thinking of a carrot salad thing. I could add raisins and agave to the shredded jicama.

I wish I could say the jicama made me full last night, but sadly I was left with the same hungry, unsatisfied feeling after dinner. For some reason, a little rice takes care of that. I don't get that. I did not have any rice last night. I ended up with more guacamole and a couple of bananas (not at the same time, lol).

I need to grab some wild rice from the store. I may also give raw corn a shot. My hopes for raw starches filling me up are low, but I'll give the corn a shot. I am really curious about the wild rice, though.

Today, I brought a combo of chia seeds and sesame seeds. I add water raisins, craisins and agave for a sweet 'cereal' of sorts. I haven't tried sesame seeds in it yet. I am curious how that's gonna work out. Together chia seeds and sesame seeds bring loads of omega 6 and omega 3 fats, zinc, iron and calcium.

I am honestly just looking for a way to eat more sesame seeds. I need to grind them up and make Tahini. I don't have a grinder and I hate to think what they add to the Tahini that's on supermarket shelves.

Anyway, today is the chia/sesame porridge thing, more fruit, more almonds, a salad for dinner and a jicama creation of some sort and probably guacamole as I have one more ripe avocado.

[MysticTree]

I need to grab some wild rice from the store. I may also give raw corn a shot. My hopes for raw starches filling me up are low, but I'll give the corn a shot. I am really curious about the wild rice, though.

Corn is a good idea ... anything that has you really munching and chewing should help a lot.

We got rid of our tv a couple of years ago and anyway we have no electricity at the moment but we do things like fetching water and washing the sprouts and fetching wood and doing crosswords and going shopping together. I love the doing together thing. BF is taking longer to realise that just because something doesn't need two people to do it is no reason not to have two people doing it!

[Crystal2870]

Day Two

Well another day almost complete !

Today I wasnt hungry when I woke up so just had peppermint tea, later I had some strawberries, then a pint of green juice, cucumber, celery, apple, watercress, parsley, really enjoyed that.

Later made some crudites and some really yummy tomatoe pesto, with sun dried toms, fresh toms, basil, garlic, olive oil. Lush ! Ate some olives (not sure if raw but I can go with that !)

Tea was the courgette pasta with mariana sauce, big salad, guacomole, fennel salad, was nice but always think sometimes that the raw subsitutes are never going to taste like the originals, so kind of a bit disappointed although it was nice ...

Chucked some sweet potatoes with paprika on in the dehydrator , some with nutritional yeast, and some onions in braggs.

Been looking at raw on the internet , to be honest the more I look into it the more confusing it becomes, dont eat this dont eat that, dont nuts, nor advocados' , some are hybrids, eat lots of fruit !! arghhhh.

The kids didnt touch thier dinner ! Im just going to concentrate on myself I think and if they want any of my meals then fine ! I wish I only had myself to think about and not worrying about if the kids are getting enough nutrition/calories in them !

Still struggling in my head, constantly making myself miserable about depriving myself of delicious foods ! perhaps when I start to feel great I will feel a bit different !

Pansylo - yeah i couldnt face my frogspawn today ! lol ! i didnt let it soak yesterday and was gagging gulping it down ! i know what its like living at home and having to explain yourself to someone whos not really on the same wavelength ! x I shouldnt worry about the kids really as like you say they will see me eating more healthily and probably want more, they are pretty good at eating healthily really which is good compared to thier friends ! x

[PansyLo]

^ When I have kids I'll get them from a young age! Kids will be a long while off so hopefully by that point in my life I will be a raw guru!

That pesto sounds yum!

Today was good!

I had a raw smoothy at lunch and had a mostly raw dinner. I've gotten LOADS done too, got my treatment sorted and switched over to where I live now, so no more trips to Glasgow! Got more than half my studio painted, just got to do the wee nook and a bit by the door.

I need to do some shopping tomorrow. I'm undecided about what to get, I feel like I should be trying some new things (that pesto sounds super good) but my boyfriend is coming round, I said he could stay for a couple of days but not sure how long he will stay for. I don't think he'll be wanting to eat my experiments! Especially if they go badly! I hadn't really considered that I'm going to have to feed him to until now... I don't even know what food he likes! He can just live off biscuits.
Maybe I'll buy raw groceries and we can just get take-away while he's here. There's a good goan restaurant that do freshly cooked food, it's not raw obviously but it's fairly healthy and freshly prepared which is good on the take-out scale.

[robh]

Pansy, sounds like your BF is going to drag your diet down.

Crystal2870, I felt the same confusion not so long ago. I got some good advice the other day about eating raw: don't listen to other people, listen to your body. If your body likes the food, eat it. :)

MysticTree, do you wash your clothes by hand? and dry them on a clothes line? What about water? do you have a hand pump? Life without electricity sounds challenging!

The scale showed some favorable numbers today: 256. I saw 255 a while back when I was sick. I think I was 258 yesterday and 259 the day before (damn cooked rice and oatmeal).

Speaking of rice, I have some wild rice soaking now. If I like it, I will need to find an affordable source. This is Minnesota wild rice (very long, very dark grains). It was a tiny box and it cost a lot!

Yesterday, I slowly ate that chia seed and sesame seed porridge thing that I posted. I calculated that it had about 500 calories. On a hunch, I did 100 calories of it an hour in the morning. I was full an satisfied all morning. I got a little hungry after eating some fruit. Dinner time was a salad and an avocado.

Fats may be the key to keeping me full. I just hate eat so much fat. Even now, my skin feels greasy.

I guess we'll see how today goes. Good luck all.

[MysticTree]

The mods cons we have are

• a mains water tap - far end of plot where we live - yes we mostly wash by hand unless there is just so much bad weather that we can't get it dry and then we use the launderette
• very small caravan
• Mobile phones - charged at work or in cafes

• Plus contents of the house we moved from so we have plates, knives and forks, table and chairs etc

Lots of fruit so far today.
Scales are just so unimportant to me. I got on them this morning but couldn't remember what they said last time so I only know the over all trend is down. I need to lose quite a bit more but it's going ok.

[Crystal2870]

Day Three

End of day three ! ,

I woke up today feeling a bit groucy and snapped at my other half, doesnt help with him putting on toast wafting up and making endless cups of tea.
Felt a bit negative and random words keep popping into my head saying "custard!" or really odd things that I dont even eat !!
Whats that all about !

I made a lovely smoothie with chia seed, (two tablespoons), two bananas, couple handful of frozen berries, some acai powder.. really like the chia keeps me going for ages without getting hungry. Met a friend and took kids out, I had an apple and banana, then two flax crackers (brought ones hmmm a bit chewy , want really crispy !), handful of marinated nuts.
Got home and had remaining pesto (well dropped it on the floor so only a bit left !) and two sticks of celery. few soaked almonds an orange.
for tea had salad, cabbage, tomatoes, celery, red onion, bit lettuce, cider vinegar, olive oil was very chewy !!!

Going to have a go at making some raw chocolates, they look amazing, Ive been craving chocolate for some reason, and Im not a chocolate person, Im not fond of dark choc since being vegan so rarely have it..again reading about the cocoa some people dis approve but I need things that will make me feel like im not depriving myself so Im ok with that !

Robh- its true I need to start listening to my body, if I am craving chocolate maybe its iron or something I need, Im trying to get out of that mentality its breakfast dinner and tea and eating when Im hungry. How has your weight loss been Robh?..since going raw, I got on the scales this morning and was not amused , I managed to PUT on a pound am I the only person who puts on weight going raw lol, I shouldnt really weigh myself especially at this early stage but its hard not to. I spoke to my sister whos been a good support shes lost 7 stone already and has 6 more too loose, shes on this diet where its bars/shakes ect, nicknamed the "dust" diet, I'd like this raw to work so she can see how healthy it is to loose weight and to eat as well, but I guess shes on her own journey and maybe alot of people think raw food is very extreme because they dont understand it, I do beleive in the diet and have seen miricles of people curing themselves but I suppose I've always thought well I would do that if I was really sick ect ! and Im vegan so pretty healthy !, do you think you are not eating enough fats ?..I wonder just by reading some of the testimonials in Alissa's book where people think they are overeating but apparantly not ? , I guess you hit the nail on the head though, everyone is not the same and people's metabolism are different, what works for some , may not for others ...

Pansylo - yes best to start raw from scratch I think easier ! Easy to get mine to eat fruit (little ones) but greens different matter ! , Its been bad enough bringing up mine vegan and non vaccinated let alone raw lol x I know some people had great success !

Wondering when this great jump of bed, lots of energy will kick in, I certainly havent experienced any of that so far ! LOL I have heaps of ironing/cleaning/washing to do and cant be arsed !! x

[MysticTree]

I haven't felt very hungry today. We took a nice walk into town to the health food shop and got a few sproutables and raw nut butters and raw honey and bits and bobs. Bought an enormous watermelon this afternoon and it is "gert lush" as we say in the West Country! I'm taking 10 chlorella a day at the moment and I think that may have a subduing effect on my appetite. Lovely local strawberries from a local market as well. I made a huge coleslaw come kimchee type dish which should last well til early next week. The garden is coming on well but we need fencing to keep the dogs out. A good day all in all.

[Crystal2870]

Day Four

Had peppermint tea, big smoothie, bananas, frozen berries, fresh strawberries, acai, maca (forgot to put chia seeds in!), 2 year old loved this, made a cashew nut ,water ,cocoa and dates for my elder boy which he also really liked.
Several handfuls of soaked almonds, some olives, two fresh apricots,
Was really hungry today had banana and raw fruit and nut bar then a big advocado salad.
Felt really miserable this afternoon, started crying and felt really down, been snappy again and impatient, not feeling good , keep sending my other half to the shops and he comes back with the wrong thigns or doesnt get what I asked !
Made lemon pudding with advocado, lemons and dates was quite nice but couldnt get it really silky smooth as wasnt enough for the vitamix to process, I put it with my hand blender but still didnt work..
Not feeling good really , the maca is supposed to help with hormones ect lol I'd better have a triple dose tomorrow !!! Although probably some form of detox too..
Think I will get a bath and early night ! x

[Aleesha Sattva]

Time to move over to the July thread!

http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/showthread.php?68556