Transitioning to High Raw

I am on about day 4 of a bit of transitioning to High Raw again.

This time I am not putting any pressure on myself for any percentage but I am really wanting to eat LOTS of raw.  I think it was the months and months of very low carb that has my body so dehydrated and craving fruits and lots of veggies.

The last few days I have eaten bunches of fruit and I've made great salads.  I am eating pretty close to 80% (estimate) without really having to try too hard.

I also realize I have been depressed.  I have read that lack of enough carbs can cause low serotonin.  I think being depressed I just didn't realize it and now that I am starting to come out of it.. it's sort of like not knowing how bad your vision is until you put on glasses.

I am feeling good.. I went for months without really wanting to leave my house.. and slowly I am feeling I am coming out of this.

I have family coming to town so I am sure I will have days I will eat more cooked than other but again no pressure on myself right now.  I plan on contributing huge, beautiful salads to meals and to keep lots of fruit and fruit salads in the house.  I am also planning on making Summer rolls.  OMG I totally LOVE Summer rolls and what a wonderful way to get lots of raw veggies.

I need to lose about 100 pounds.. Right now though I am really trying to not focus so much on weight and more on health.  I just feel horrid.. my whole body aches.. my back and hips ache.. the weight really has taken it's toll. 

Tonight I am making a huge salad.. one of my favorites from my last venture into raw.  It's grated carrot, broccoli and raisins.. with soaked raw pumpkin seeds and a dressing with honey and lots of fresh lime juice.. I also this time added some fresh dulse (nice for saltiness!) that I put thru the food processor with the veggies.  This salad is beyond amazing and my husband (who supports me but is not eating as high raw as I am) loves it. 

Feelin' Juicy~

Why Do I Have to be so Extreme?

I want to go back to High Raw.

Why do I have to be so damn extreme though?  Every time I go back to raw I put huge, high expectations on myself and always let myself down.  I lose out on the wonders of continued Raw Food eating because I am so all or nothing in my thinking.   I have to try my best to be easy on myself when I have a day I have to eat cooked food.. Lately I've seen lots of the long time raw foodists admit not to eating cooked occasionally.. and to not being totally Vegan.

I want to just stop putting labels on myself.  I know a high raw lifestyle would help me so much.  My health is not great and I am a good 80pounds overweight.

I just have to give myself permission to NOT BE PERFECT. 

I've just ordered a few supplies (mostly nuts and seeds that are truly raw.. hard to find at a normal grocery store)..

I will transition slowly.. we have lots of food in the house and I am not throwing anything away this time (another example of my extremest tenancies is constantly throwing away food I don't consider "worthy".)

Looking forward to making my Ginger Almond nori rolls soon!

HIGH RAW GINGER ALMOND NORI ROLLS:

 

1 knob fresh ginger

½ clove garlic

1 T nama shoyu

1 C sprouted Almonds (soak overnight, rince well, drain an hour)

juice of 1 lemon

water if needed

I added this gold hot sauce my sister turned me on to from the Oriental market (about ¼ C) and doubled this above recipe to have extra pate for raw, dehydrated crackers!

It's basically a yellow hot sauce with a touch of sweetness - could use whatever hot sauce you like.

Blend all above into a paste.

For veggies:

Green leaves (arugula, spinach, whatever green you have (not optional)

Mung bean sprouts, shredded carrot, thin sliced red bell, green onion, celery or zuchinni.. whatever else you have.

To assemble:

Lay nori down and lay greens on bottom half of the nori. (make sure the greens are dry) this acts as a moisture barrier. Add rest of veggies ( I use a veggie peeler and make ribbons of zucchini and carrot and cut anything else up in very thin strands.

and roll up as tight as possible.. (I needed and used a bamboo rolling Mat)

Use a VERY sharp knife to cut.

Can also make these as hand rolls

THIS STUFF IS THE BOMB!

I'll be back.

I'm Back..

And this time I am going to be much less demanding of myself to be incredibly high raw.

The strive for perfection became the enemy of my good.  This time around I will just start out doing what I can and not be so damn hard on myself.

I am coming off a very low carb diet (again) and this time I was so extreme (seeing a pattern here) in my low carb idealism I was eating close to no carbs.. and ended up having an "extremely abnormal" EKG.. several times.. and had to come immediately out of ketosis. 

Right now I am waiting on blood tests and a referral to a cardiologist but I am pretty sure it's electrolyte imbalance and (extremely low potassium, calcium and magnesium) as I was next to never eating dairy and hardly a green veggie in site..

I wanted to lose weight so bad that now I have screwed up my health.

I am starting out with just an occasional salad and maybe a nice low glycemic green juice every once in a while. 

I will talk here about allot more that just Raw foods and health too.. I have so much going on and I know I need a place to let it all hang out.

Today I remembered how much I love veggie wraps made the Summer roll style.. and I will be making some soon with a few shrimp in them (not going Vegan or even Vegetarian).  No extreme anything for me... ever again.

I may count a few calories here and there.  Not sure.  I feel if I can eat high volume water foods (fruits and veggies) I may not have to worry about calories.. but on the other hand I may be kidding myself.

I made a huge pot of Red Swiss Chard and added a bunch of roasted garlic and some white beans.  Since being low carb for so long I am first starting off with just adding some damn veggies!!!

Back home..

after a visit with my mother and sister.  They both have illnesses they are dealing with (mom MS and sis Crohn's disease).  It was a hard time.. my sis had to go to the ER.  I was so glad I was there.  I did exceptionally well diet wise while I was there.

I stayed high raw and totally Vegan..  In the past I would have given into the sadness and fear I feel about my sister and used it as an excuse to shove food in my face.

I didn't.  If anything seeing her deal with this horrid disease strengthened my resolve to do everything I can for my health.
 
I cooked dinner for everyone one night and made a HUGE amazing salad to go with that I ate.  I did have cooked kidney beans and beets in the salad.. I love that combo so much and don't know that I will ever give it up.. I love garbanzo also but in the future I am going to see about soaking/sprouting those babies.. will see.

I am slowly changing.. one thing interesting is I have stopped coffee.  I used to be such a coffee fiend.. like most people... I even had over 14 different Davinci flavors I had collected to use in our coffee.. I would always bring my DH a cup in bed in the AM to get him to wake up.. it was a ritual.. I still do that for him but I have hot lemon water as mine.. it's strange about the coffee... I just don’t crave it right now.. my body is getting more juicey! 

I KNOW I was totally dehydrated on low carb.  I had a hard time wearing my contacts because my eyes were constantly dry.  I could never do anything or go anywhere without constant water with me.  I had glasses of water everywhere in the house.. and bottles in the car.  My poor body really was  dehydrated!   

Normally when I would grocery shop I would buy two bottles of cold water.. drink one and a half while I was shopping and the rest on the way home.. my mouth was constantly dry.  

The other day I actually went to the store.. did all my shopping and when I was checking out I realized I had not got my usual bottles of water I HAVE to always have when I am shopping.. I was constantly thirsty for a year.. I know now it was low carb.. my body is starting to get refreshed and re-hydrated.  

I know now when I lose weight it will not fucking be water like it always was on low carb!  I am eating TONS of fruit.  I am eating as much as I want.. the only thing I think I might need to work on is not combing fruit and nuts within an hour of each other.. right now I am eating what I want as long as it’s raw.. I am taking a much less severe approach this time.. no longer worrying about or striving for perfection.

I realized I ate like 95% raw yesterday without even trying - I have Amy's organics vegan meals in the freezer for dinners when I want to eat cooked but I wanted a salad!..  I ate fruit and nuts all day until dinner and had a wonderful salad.. it was Avocado, shreadded carrot, beets, peas, fresh corn, heirloom tomato, two types of lettuce, kidney beans (yum.. not giving up beans!).  I used really amazing balsamic vinegar only as the dressing.. I love it!

I loved it and it was very filling!

I have to go back to the store today.. I am having to go more often and buying less produce at a time.. I find it goes bad too quick if I really stock up.  I need more fruit and tonight I am making my spiral zucchini/summer squash and raw marinara to go with it... it's not 100% raw as I add red wine to the sauce but it's really high raw!. 

I am adding in some leftover raw Italian cashew “cheese” I have been making.. it’s just pine nuts, cashews, Italian spices, lemon juice, raw garlic and nutritional yeast.. I love it.. I used to also add basil to it and dehydrated it to make “raw Parmesan”.. tonight I am going to just add a little to some of the sauce.  YUM!

I will weigh in tomorrow..

Dreaming Of My Upcoming Juice FEAST~

Just got back today from a 3 day visit with my sister and mother.. I did exceptionally well.. I didn't do even 75% raw but I fasted most of the day each day and had juice a time or two and made a HUGE salad night before last for dinner.. well and last night I had Mexican so I'm puttin' that out there.

I know I have lost weight.. I can just feel it and can't wait to get on the scale in the AM.

I am planning on a juice feast soon!
I just feel so READY.

I will make a plan and I would LOVE to do 30+ days.  I know people do many more days that that but the most I have been able to do is 7 days.  I am not setting a # of days as a goal yet.  I really want to get down to like 185 before I come off but that's over 40 pounds.

Anyway just had to come write.  I am proud of myself.  I even had to take my sister to the ER (she has serious Crohn's disease) and didn't binge or pig out.  There is so much stress in my life right now.  My mother has MS also and I just feel so sad allot of the time.. Helpless and sad.

BUT I kept strong and told myself I am doing this no matter what.
I will weigh tomorrow.

Nighty!

Fruit.. Hummm?

I am concerned (like many people going to high raw) about eating too much fruit.  (I used to be borderline diabetic but was on low carb for several months and don't think I am anymore but I have not tested in a year).

I think I ate too much fruit yesterday.. I had three bananas just for breakfast.. then mango and half a HUGE papaya.  I wish I knew for sure that the sugar in fruit is not good for me but I am going to try to eat less sweet fruit on a daily basis.. I bought lots of greens yesterday so I am all set!


FOOD YESTERDAY:
I had fruit all day till lunch then I had two large crackers with avo, red onion, tomato and capers (for the crackers I used my new recipe for raw dehydrated red bell pepper ones)! :

 (this is my own recipe.. I worked on getting it just right.  If you post it please give me credit).

Red Bell Pepper Raw Crackers

red, yellow and orange bell peppers (one each or a combo)
about 15 grape tomato
half a FL Avocado(or one Haas)
Tomatoes (about 15 grape.. I am going to use sundried next time)
lemon juice  from one lemon
1 C flax seeds (I'm trying 2/3 C  it was a tiny bit bitter)
and sunflower seeds.. 1 C
nutritional yeast about 2 T
salt and cayenne.. 

I put the veggies, avo and lemon juice in the food processor and blended.. then I added 1 Cup each of flax and sunflower seeds and nutritional yeast and a little salt (I love Sunfire Salt!) and cayenne.. 

They turned out great!   
I wanted to note that the salt you add ends up tasting like TWICE the salt you actually added when you dehydrate it.. So just keep that in mind.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They were really good.. I made them so I can have my favorite raw food dinner, I spread them with smashed avo, then add red onion, tomato and capers for an open face “cracker sandwich”…

I had two large crackers with this on it for lunch. It's so good.  

Then I think I had more fruit.. mango maybe.. I think I just am eating too much fruit.  I really enjoy it but I am pretty sure it’s just because it’s sweet not because I need it.. nutrition wise.. I NEED greens I am sure.   

Dinner was two HUGE bowls of raw apricot granola from Natural Zing with almond/coconut milk (not raw.. Almond Breeze brand from Netrition.com) and I pigged out on it.. I KNOW so far I have actually still been losing weight even eating what I think is too much at night because I am so low cal the rest of the day from all the raw fruits and veggies.. I KNOW many people who go raw have to pig out on nuts and seeds and sprouted grains and dehydrated stuff in the beginning to feel full.. the transition is very hard otherwise.

Yesterday I was watching my RAW for life DVD and one of the Dr’s talked about how diabetes is also caused by the pancreas not getting enough minerals that it used more minerals than any other organ in our body.. wow. I KNOW my year on low carb depleted minerals from my body.  I even had a fainting episode because of loss of electrolytes (minerals).

PLAN FOR TODAY.

I plan on fasting with water until I am really hungry later today and then having a green smoothie or green juice..  I will use only an apple or two in my juice/smoothie.   

For dinner today I am making Avocado / Pineapple Gazpacho and I am sure it will be great with my red bell pepper crackers!  I love that my hubs is eating raw too.. he's no where near High Raw but he will eat what I make for sure.  

DEtox yet?
 Yesterday I woke feeling fine and did fine until nighttime…when nighttime rolled around I got a headache and my sinus got stuffy and I just felt like crap again.  I have been getting over a bad cold and I think it was just the nature of a bad cold.. at night it gets worse.. I have no idea which it is going on really!  Maybe I’ve already started detox because I AM high raw even though about 40% of it is dehydrated raw..
I am excited and encouraged.  Yeah!  I am one of those crazy people who is fascinated by Detox!

Lastly!
I made an attempt at my first raw wraps yesterday!  I decided on onion/green apple.  (for lunch wraps).. they green apple is not really sweet.. just counteracts the onion a bit and the pectin makes for a nice wrap.  I just turned them over and I am excited as they look like they turned out.. I just have to be careful not to over dehydrate them now.  Yeah!

I Am Losing Weight..

I'm Really tired.. Just want to stay in bed all day today.

I've lost 3 pounds in a couple of days.  I am eating raw breakfast and lunch and snacks but a cooked vegan dinner.. so far. And I am pigging out at night the last two nights on my dinners even.

I have had one really bad binge (yesterday) on two English muffins and honey butter.. but it's a work in progress.. I know my cravings for crap will sooner or later lessen.

I don't feel like writing much but I wanted to post that I feel encouraged...

I have been seeing more and more raw foodists that I followed before admitting that they are no longer perfect and some no longer even 100% Vegan (eating eggs and/or salmon)... this makes me feel better, knowing that I don't have to strive for perfect really encourages me to do the BEST I can and that my best will be good enough.