More Raw

I have been high-raw, i.e., eating over 80 percent raw food, most days 100 percent raw vegan, (but who knows if the nuts are really raw?) for over 40 days.  I have not had coffee for 45 days.  It has been (prepare yourself for a cliche phrase) life changing.  I am surprised at how much I like it and how easy it is.  The greatest challenge, thus far, is social dining.  Despite this, the rewards are great.

My sleep has improved.  Cuts heal faster.  My mood is more upbeat.  I get going in the morning without the two-plus cups of coffee I used to require.  No coffee to grind.  No coffee maker to clean.  No coffee to buy.  I drink a quart of water in the morning (it is dry here in the Southwest Desert) and add juice of a half lemon or lime.  Then I juice a quart of vegetable juice.  I drink one or two pints, whatever I desire.  If I only drink one pint, I save the other in the fridge for later.  If I am still hungry I have some fruit or a salad.  Yes, a salad for breakfast -- or lunch.  And I mean a vegetable salad, although sometimes I add a bit of apple, peach, or nectarine. If the salad is not sufficient, I have some nuts or seeds afterwards.  Be careful not to go nuts with the nuts.  Unless you are breaking them out of their shells, they are too easy to eat.

I generally save my smoothie for lunch or afternoon.  I have been making my smoothies with frozen fruit and greens -- green smoothie.  I freeze fresh fruit, peeled if necessary and cut into pieces, when it is sweet and on sale.  The frozen fruit makes the smoothie almost like a sherbert and I eat it with a spoon.  It is cooling, tasty, thick, convenient, fast, easy, and healthy.  No added sugar.  No added fat. No animals, animal parts, or animal by-products in the blender. Trust me, I never wanted a green smoothie until I tried one during the 7 Day Raw Food Challenge.  Look for my previous posts Is Your Drink Green?, Got Greens?, and other posts from late July for my green smoothie recipes, thoughts, and observations during my raw genesis.  Also link to http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=1383344 for a FREE easy juice and smoothie recipe e-Book, other easy raw recipes, videos, and info about the 7 Day Raw Food Challenge I completed.

Let me give you a secret ingredient I add to my banana spinach smoothie --- cinnamon.  It adds a new taste and the health giving properties of cinnamon.  I also add 4 to 6 ice cubes because my blender can grind them.  Note that I do not have one of those super-duper  $400 blenders.  Just something better than the old, bottom-of-the-line $15 model I used to have, for years, until the plastic handle broke off the (what is it called?) blender pitcher (?).  To recap:  the secret ingredients are cinnamon and ice cubes.  ;-)

I go to a naturopathic doctor.  After I stopped coffee for several weeks, a noon time slump in energy that would have been boosted by caffeine became pronounced.  The doctor found that my pineal gland was weak.  This has been corrected and my energy is quite sufficient to get through the day and evening.  Had it not been for quitting coffee, I would never have known that my pineal, a master gland, was weak.
I was advised it is OK for me to take vitamin B12.  The naturopath I go to has been a vegetarian since the 1960s!  He takes some B12.  He works long days, sometimes over 12 hours, and goes to the gym to work out during lunch.  We need more role models who practice what they preach and don't do too much preaching.  Also, it is good to have a practitioner you trust who can intelligently support you when you change your diet.  You want to be sure you are getting all your nutritional needs met.

In a previous post I promised to print some quotes from a book I read, Blatant Raw Foodist Propaganda! or Sell Your Stove to the Junkman and Feel Great!  Here it is:
    Most people live on an omnivorous diet -- that is, anything that is possible to chew up and swallow      and live long enough to tell about it, they will eat.  But, for one reason or another, many people decide to adopt some restrictions...The great value of the raw food diet is its transformative value. To a great extent, when you take up the raw food diet, you become a new and different and better person.  You don't just stay the same old person, only a little healthier.  You become, to a great extent, a new being, with new interests, a new philosophy and outlook on life, new goals and desires...Such transformations of course are impossible to imagine before you have experienced them.  The raw foods diet doesn't so much "improve you" as "replace you" with somebody better!  -- Joe Alexander c.1990

Wow.  Lofty words Joe.  I could stand to be replaced with somebody better.

I am new and improved, or replaced...,
Southwest Desert Blogger
C. (c)2011






 

 

Fallen Vegetarians

Day 14 of no coffee.  Day 10 raw food vegan.  It is a comfortable 97 degrees outside with humidity up to 19 percent.  Been so dry I had to water the patio plants today.  Maybe it'll rain on Friday.

I read some interesting information on Dr. Mercola's website:  Most vegetarians are female.  Most of them laps after an average of 9 years of vegetarianism.  This pool of fallen vegetarians outnumbers current practicing vegetarians 3 to one!  They may fall off the vegetable wagon and board the meat truck for reasons such as declining health, cravings for meat, social pressure, etc. Bottom line: 75 percent of vegetarians fall off the wagon, i.e., they are former vegetarians.

They have traded wheat grass for grass fed beef.  Some are just chowing down on commercial greasy burgers and fries, ribs, filet mignon, rib eye, sirloin, bacon cheese burgers, pork chops, ham, you name it.  They crave it.  But I digress.

Back to the website article:  If you want to ensure that your cattle were grass-fed, look for the "USDA Process Verified" label.  That means they were not fed any grain or grain by-products, except for perhaps cow milk, until slaughter.  Apparently that USDA certification is pricey, so many small farmers / ranchers cannot afford it.  There may be some nice grass fed beef in the butcher shop that simply lacks certification.  Tough decision-making for those fallen vegetarians, omnivores, and carnivores -- save a buck or buy USDA certified?

It is not clear whether that USDA grass-fed beef has antibiotics or hormones.  But at least the cattle got to eat grass and hopefully enjoy some nice outdoor grazing in a pastoral environment.  I suppose if demand increases, they will create the grass-fed feed lot.  The concept boggles my mind.

I do not crave meat.  I am thinking about whether I have enough greens in the fridge to get me through tomorrow.  That head of butter lettuce might not be big enough, but I have a good supply of organic celery to fall back on.  I also have cucumbers, carrots, mangoes, nectarines, beets, a green bell pepper, ginger from Hawaii, bananas, blueberries, apples, almonds, one little avocado, and a handful of cherries. What have you got?  Got beef?

Raw veganly yours,
Southwest Desert Blogger
C. (c)2011  P.S. check out this excellent link for raw vegan info, FREE smoothie recipes e-Book, videos, and a super 7 Day Raw Food Challenge and 10 Day Juice Feast.  I have learned so much from this info. 
  http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=1383344

Got Greens?

Did you ever crave greens so badly that you had to make a special trip to the store just to get them?  I have had craving for ice cream, chocolate, cookies, a glass of wine, bread, pizza, pasta, some very ripe, sweet fruit, but today, for the first time, I had a craving for greens.  I did not care whether it was a dark green romaine lettuce, chard, spinach . . . it just had to be green.  The cucumbers in the fridge would not satisfy the craving.  I had to make a trip to the store.

I bought 2 bunches of organic celery, one huge dark green head of organic romaine lettuce, and organic beet greens.  I had to go to two different stores to get the quality I wanted.  Wilted romaine or beet greens would not do.  I went home and juiced up the beet greens with some beet root, carrot, apple, and cucumber (all organic save the cucumber which was washed and peeled).  Ahhhhh, the craving was satisfied.

Three hours later I wanted more greens.  It was afternoon and a hot 97 degrees with monsoon humidity.  I mixed up a batch of the banana blueberry smoothie* (FREE smoothie recipe e-Book link at the end of this post) and added as much romaine as I could fit into the blender.  The bananas were cut into 1/4 inch slices and previously frozen.  I had to add extra water to get the whole thing to mix.  See the recipe in previous blog.  I also blended in a few ice cubes; crushed ice would be even better.  The result was a thick, cold product that resembled the $7 smoothies at the smoothie shop.  The smoothie shop will top their smoothies with granola.  I topped mine with hemp seeds which give it a nice texture and taste.  I have also topped smoothies with chia seeds which give a bit more crunch.  Both these seeds are said to have good essential fatty acids such as Omega 3, and protein.  The smoothie works with mango instead of, or in addition to blueberries, but the mango I bought was not organic and had a chemical taste.  There are inorganic mangoes that are better than the ones I had, I just did not want to go to a third store. 

I am not going to accept any of that chemical tasting food.  I put the offending mango in a plastic bag and into the refrigerator.  I will return it to the store.  While I am at the store, I will look for more greens.

Still 100% raw vegan,
Southwest Desert Blogger
*P.S. get easy, delicious, FREE juice and smoothie recipes e-Book, videos, and info on the life changing 7 Day Raw Food Challenge I completed, link here:  http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=1383344  Have a healthy, happy day. C.
C. (c)2011