Raw Progress

Still feeling RAWSOME!!

Here's one of my recent creations... cauliflower/bok choy/alfalfa dressed in lemon and olive oil, warm dehydrated veggie patties, fresh warm tomato salsa - red onion/garlic/sun dried toms/fresh toms, avocado. Delish!

So far about 7 weeks of raw - I've been high raw, not 100%. Released 4.5kgs, and a dress size. Eat lots of gorgeous food, mountains of it! I'm loving it!

ESP my frozen banana 'icecream'. I should buy shares in a plantation... or plant some down the back soon.... hmmmm.... : )

New presents to myself!!!

Photo courtesy Fresh & Healthy

Today I bought myself my very own masticating juicer! No. Get your mind out of the gutter! It means 'chewing' and cold presses my juices with the least amount of heat and oxidisation. Which means my juice has more nutrients and a longer life. It does EVERYTHING! I'm so excited! I made some yummy vegetable patties with it and I'm planning on making lots of frozen 'ice-creams' and nut butters too.... I'm dreaming of natural nutella!

I've been detoxing a little today with lower energy than normal and a constant headache all day... it's a bit rough, but nothing I can't handle with some more water and a little lie down. I'm hoping it will sort itself out by tomorrow when I have to work, we'll see.

I have heaps more news, but sorry it will have to wait, can't chat... I've got to go and make more stuff with my new toy!

Metamorphisis

Three weeks raw and I feel a bit like I am being made over. My ideas about myself, they way I walk on the earth and nutrition are all changing. Some days I feel somewhat overwhelmed about it all. Big picture, I want to try to live as consciously as possible, but I find I’m falling short of my ideals. Slowly slowly I’m going to try to change.

The changes I’ve made recently:
• Buy from the markets and bulk foods and REMEMBER to bring my own containers and bags
• Make big batches of food for the week – prepare in advance as much as I can
• Try to encourage others to eat more fresh fruit and veg and explain my reasons for going raw
• Buy as many ethical products as possible, if in doubt, even if it’s a supplement, I won’t buy it
• Try new foods and ways of preparing raw foods – completely different to conventional recipes
• Eat consciously, not out of boredom, social situations or peer pressure
• Say no to stress by not taking too much on board at work and in my relationships
• Keep a journal of moods and foods to discover patterns of what my body does and doesn’t like
• Start supplementing with whole foods: bee pollen, maca, MSM, slippery elm, silica and include a wide variety of fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds and fats.
• Eliminate processed foods including refined sugar, bread, pasta and packet foods and eat whole, fresh ingredients only

The most difficult thing has not been switching to raw surprisingly! The diet part is easy. It’s the mental shift I wasn’t prepared for. Trying to reconcile myself with what my husband eats has been hard! We sat down and had a talk and he agreed to try to be more aware of his nutrition, which is a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, I don’t think he really cares about his health as much as I do. When he’s hungry, he eats whatever is fast, which is a problem. The worst part is, he’s a personal trainer, you think he’d understand! He’s got a genetically very lean body, so he’s never had to worry about gaining weight, but then complains when he gets the flu and I don’t or he’s dead tired and I’m still full of beans. I’m hoping my example will eventually make a difference. We’ll see. Very frustrating in the meantime!!

I love the energy I have now! I can have all my lovely fruits and nut butters, fresh salads, creamy avocado and yes.... Chocolate! Yesterday someone at the office commented ‘Have you lost weight? You look good!’. I was surprised as I haven’t been weighing myself, but I’ve lost 3kgs and my skin is clearer and softer than it was before. Wheeee! How cool when people notice! Then I can get on my little soap box and share! hehe

Experimenting on non-raw friends...

These are my mini fennel and tomato tarts with macadamia cheese. Don't they look yummy? So sorry, but they were wolfed down by my non-raw friends which I am VERY pleased about! The recipe is here. (I added green peppercorns to the base and I dehydrated the crust and tomatoes a little longer than recommended because I was using my oven to do it.)










This is my pecan tart inspired by Earthmother! (Here's her recipe.) I tweaked it a little bit (am fond of tweaking!) and added a pinch of salt to the crust and vanilla extract to the filling. I also dehydrated the crust by itself and the finished pie for a couple of hours. I'm still transitioning to raw foods, so the texture was a lot more like the cooked version. My friends gave it a biiiiggggg thumbs up (hugs EM!). For them, I served it with organic vanilla icecream.

So here's my dinner party menu:
Starters: Veggie crudites, flax 'crackers' (recipe and also fun website here) and avocado and cucumber dip, vodka and fresh orange juice.
Main: Raw dishes: Orange and onion salad, Moroccan cucumber salad, caprese salad, mini tomato tarts, big green salad with olive, mango and avocado. Cooked dishes: Thai chicken green curry with rice noodles, baked potatoes with lemon and garlic, red wine.
Dessert: Pecan tart (licks lips) and icecream.
Supper: Soaked honey pecans and almonds, various herbal teas.

It all went without a hitch! I ate the raw food and a small baked potato only and washed it down with a nice glass of cabernet. I really enjoyed my meal, despite it being raw (who says raw food is boring!), especially because I didn't get the groggy feeling one usually experiences after a big meal. The curry was a compromise: the chicken part was cooked, but the veggies and fresh herbs were just thrown in there briefly. My friends and husband aren't vegetarian, so I like to make something they'll recognise!

It took me a fair while to do all of the prep work, you also have to allow time for dehydrating, so the steps take longer than cooked food. I think as I get used to 'cooking' this way, it will become easier. Maybe the answer is to make things in big batches and freeze them?

The night before the party my hubby and I COULD NOT SLEEP. We were both tossing and turning, dreaming, getting woken by mozzies, by storms, by being too hot... ah the Queensland summer! We both must have only got about three hours that night. YET, the next day I was cooking and cleaning all day as per usual. Strange... hubby was wiped out and had to have a kip for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Me? Kept right on cookin'! Weird. Usually if I don't get a solid 8 hours, I'm useless!! RAWSOME! He made a comment about it today. Jealous? We'll get him eating his salads yet! (grins)

WOW - did someone put something in my drink?

Image courtesy Jayne Anderson

Well today I AM BUZZING! This morning I really noticed it at about 10:30am. It felt like I was full of electricity, with a clear head, lots of energy and totally focussed in a very happy mood! Not just a little bit. A LOT. It was amazing!! As I've been about 95% raw for the last two weeks, which is not a particularly long time, it's strange to me why I'm feeling so good? I thought it would take longer!

Maybe it was my breakfast???
Breakfast: 3 macadamias, 1 carrot, 1 small piece of fresh coconut, 1 tab of chlorophyll in water... that's it!

Hmmm.... time will reveal if this is a consistent life change, or a freak wonderful day!!

It's funny I used to be (of the past year) a low-carb-high-protein-whole-foods advocate, but now... I feel completely different. I want to wait and see how this makes me feel in the long run before I give my final verdict, but I must have tried every diet out there (one of the joys of battling an ED). I've been a low-carber, endured aitkens, ate only whole foods, a soup and juice faster, work-out queen, low-fat, low-sugar, I've starved myself, drank litres and litres of protein shakes, counted calories, a weight watcher, a mono-food dieter, experimented with intermittent fasting.... the list goes on! It all seems to fly in the face of what my body has been telling me all along (I've been a vegetarian for most of my life and find it hard not to be)!!!!

FRESH WHOLE NATURAL FOODS are best.
As little interference and processing as possible! THIS has been my fall back when a particular 'diet' stopped working. Yet, sucked into the false promises, I continued to abuse myself again and again. I believe in God, and I cannot believe he would make SO MANY foods that we CAN'T eat! Or three types of fats just to confuse us! Use your noggin and eat them the way He packaged them... A lovely ripe mango that smells divine, simply discard the packet (biodegradable!) and enjoy! Beautiful creamy avocados, fresh macadamia nuts from the shell, delicious cacao and a spicy shiraz... diet, what diet?!

Sorry about the evangelical tone, I'm just so happy and high today! I wish everyone could feel this way too!

For dinner I'm making some Vietnamese summer rolls with lots of fresh mint and coriander with a lime and chilli dipping sauce... so I'm off to the chopping board! Chop chop!

In the raw

My Dinner

Chop it up:
Bok Choy, capsicum, cucumber, avocado, red apple, macadamias, fresh coriander

Dress it up:
Sea salt, macadamia oil, flax oil, splash apple cider vinegar, touch of garlic, squeeze of lime

Yes, haven't you heard? Salads are de rigueur at my place! Raw food is easy, you can have a salad (let me count the ways... swoon), fresh fruit and veg, juices, smoothies, fresh coconut juices, wine and nuts, dehydrated vege chips and raw dips and pestos.... BUT I am always open to new ideas! Got any recipes? Send 'em 'ere!

Another silly snippet about me... it's been said I'm quite the nudist! Hence the tit-le (hehe) of this post! The reason? Last weekend I went away with my hubby of seven years to North Stradbroke Island (just off Brisbane's coast, Australia) and decided to do a topless sunbake on the beach. Hmmm... Not exactly risque you may say. WELL. I threw caution to the wind and decided to have a nice frolick in the waves... wait for it... also topless! It was absolutely lovely. The water was warm and aqua, the sun was hot, the waves were gentle. Perfect.

That being said, there were only a handful of other people on the beach at the opposite end! But I thought it was rather daring, nonetheless! My tan is coming along nicely too. Hel-lo vitamin D.

I must admit, being raw is throwing up a few challenges. My husband for one. He's a bacon and eggs, spaghetti bolognese type of guy. It's making things hard, especially when he expects me to cook them for him! If I make my food for him he eats it but grumbles, or pretends to like it and then gets more food at the drive-thru later! There's quite a bit of prep and cleaning up from my meals, let alone doing double all the time. I'd make him get his own, but he can't be bothered cooking after a hard day at work and if I don't make it, he'll just have toast for dinner! It's frustrating that he won't look after his health better.

Got any suggestions? Foolproof recipes to knock the socks off him?

It was the dog.

Photo courtesy Quaker Parrots

Hmm. This isn't so good. My raw diet has been having an unwanted and socially embarrassing effect on me. Yes, I'm a bit whiffy. All of this ruffage is giving me wind! I'm hoping it's a temporary phase or I'm going to have to invest in a charcoal cushion to sit on at work!! I'm pretty sure it's my body getting rid of all the gunk and adjusting to it's new fuel.... fingers crossed! After all I've only been 3 days raw.

My regular kefir smoothie, fruit, veg and brazil nuts through the day today. Tonight I had a scrummy dinner of a lovely salad! I reek of garlic now, but it was so worth it! (Maybe that will overpower my stinky pop-offs! hehe)

Red and Green Salad

Salad
1/2 a large avocado
1/2 a red capsicum
1/2 a punnet of juicy red tom thumb tomatoes
1/2 a lebanese crunchy cucumber
big handful of basil
big handful of mint

Dressing
1 clove of garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons of flax seed oil
1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp sea salt

Chop everything up, mix and eat! Mmmm, mmm. It was divine!

For supper I had a couple of slices of watermelon followed by 4 squares of raw dark chocolate. So good.

Actually something strange happened today! At work we all were shouted lunch from Noodle Box. I didn't really want any (trying to have as much raw as I can) but felt very pressured to have some too. I ordered a vegetarian teriyaki salad (it still had noodles in it) but when it came there was beef in it, so I couldn't eat it! Maybe the universe was helping me out! haha I was really relieved, I didn't fancy eating all of that sugary dressing or the soggy noodles and got to make my own. Nipped down the shops and got a few fruit and veg and ended up having: chopped cucumber and tomato with sea salt as a salad, a handful of brazil nuts and a small pot of organic biodynamic yoghurt. Perfect! Well, the yoghurt was probably pasturised, but it was a fairly good compromise. : )