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






 

 

Wilted Produce

I had a tooth pulled yesterday.  It was the first tooth I had ever had, as they call it, extracted.  The dentist did a good job and the event was more pleasant than expected. The dental office staff was supportive and answered all my questions. There were post "extraction" instructions which include, "do not smoke or drink alcohol for 1 week" and "avoid all excessive activity for 24-48 hours."  I imagine that is tough on smokers, alcoholics, and folks who have a compulsive need to work out every day.  I am not having those problems.  Another instruction is, "A soft diet is recommended for the first 3 days."  My problem is finding fresh, organic celery to juice.  I want to add it to my freshly juiced daily vegetable juice as part of my soft, nutritious, post-extraction diet.

Has anyone noticed that often the organic sections of supermarkets and health food stores have old, wilted produce?  The celery stalks are flexible, not crunchy.  Sometimes the stalks have brown cores which are not evident until one cuts into the stalk.  The lettuce, chard, dandelion, and beet greens sit on the shelf limp and wilted.  How old is this stuff?  The fact that it is labeled  "organic" is not excuse for the aged condition of the produce.  Beef should be aged, not celery.

I told the produce man that the organic celery has been old and wilted lately.  If it were fresh I would buy two bunches.  I showed him the sad, wilted lettuce, beet greens, etc.  His response was that it was cheaper than the health food store.  I said it was old, so should be cheaper, but I wanted fresh produce and would have to go somewhere else to get it.

There was an apparent disconnect between my desire for fresh organic produce and the store offerings at a cheap price.  Frankly, much of the produce I was looking at should have been donated to the hog farm or compost heap.  Does anyone care?  Is anyone buying that old, wilted, depleted produce?

I juiced some cucumber (peeled, non-organic), organic carrots, a bit of ginger root (peeled non-organic at less than half the price of organic), organic apples, peel, core, and all, and some baby spinach (organic from the place with a name that sounds like "Costlo").  It was delightful.  Each of the three pints had different proportions of the above ingredients.  One had no spinach.  One had no cucumber.  All were tasty.  I added a bit of vitamin C powder and protein powder prior to drinking each pint.  Each was kept stored in the refrigerator until consumption.  All were consumed in one day, because the instructions said, "Adequate food and fluid intake following dental surgery is very important."  It has been hot, over 100 degrees, so I also drink water, sometimes with ice.

The tooth site was sutured.  I was told the suture material is not really cat gut, nor is it from cats, although it is often referred to as cat gut.  In my state of post-extraction delirium I do not remember whether it is from cow or what?  The sutures dissolve in the mouth in 2 to 4 weeks, although they can be removed in 2 weeks or sometimes less if they are bothering the patient.  They form a nice little "x" over the extraction site.

That's all for now, as I must follow instructions and "avoid all excessive activity."  When I feel up to it I will search for some fresh organic celery to juice.

Happy trails to all,
Southwest Desert Blogger
C. (c)2011