30 Days of Raw Food

End of Day 1: Still alive

Cindy is right: Eating raw takes a lot of time, even without factoring in inquisitive colleagues wondering if I've already fallen off the wagon or my lengthy search for tahini at Whole Foods this afternoon. (Hint: it's near the peanut butter, for some reason.)

Making all my food fresh today took longer than I'm accustomed to spending on food preparation. This probably isn't saying much: I'm a single guy who tends not to fuss over most meals.

Breakfast today was a fruit smoothie for breakfast (a cup of water blended with a banana, two strawberries, a handful of blueberries, two chunks of pineapple, kale and some hemp seeds for protein). Lunch was a salad and guacamole (sans tomato, which I was out of). An hour or so after lunch, I ate a raw bar Cindy had thoughtfully left on my desk, and I ate another of my own around 4.

After my odyssey at the grocery store, I made avocado gazpacho, with a few minor variations on this recipe. It was delicious, and after augmenting two bowls of the soup with a handful of raw almonds, I was (almost) full.

It's now 11: 30 p.m., though, and I'm kinda hungry.

Not Entering Detox

Only 696 hours to go.

Just kidding. This may have been our official first day, but I've been eating this way for almost a week now, so today was a piece of raw cake. Something hot would have been nice on this depressing, rainy day, but I spent the day focused on my grazing and tried not to think about the smell of freshly brewed coffee in the office or the cinnamon buns everyone else was eating with the freshly brewed coffee in the office.

My early start has given me a sense of optimism and enthusiam I might not have had otherwise. One of my biggest fears (besides failing) was feeling hungry or being too weak to function at work or home. But I'm not hungry, and I have as much energy as ever. It may be too early to say I have more energy, but I certainly don't have less, and I just finished an hour at the gym. And so far I've had none of the detox symptoms I was so nervous about. Maybe it's because I gave up coffee and sugar and processed foods a month ago, or maybe I ate better than I thought I did.

A lot of eating happens on this diet, and it takes awhile to get out of the mindset that you are overeating. I seem to have settled into a pattern of eating fruits early in the day, with some fat throughout but mostly at night. Today's menu included:

A green smoothie for breakfast, with one cup of almond milk, 1/2 a pineapple, 2 frozen bananas and a couple handfuls of kale (you really don't taste it). This takes a while to drink, but keeps my hunger at bay longer than my previous life's breadfast or toast with butter and jam and milk and oj.

For lunch, I had two apples with 2 tbsp of almond butter and an orange.

Around 2 or 3, I had a raw bar, a dehydrated concentration of dates, almonds and cherries. These pack a higher-calorie punch, with about 200 or 300 calories, depending on the brand and flavor. Some have flaxseed, which I'm told is a complete protein, so it's essential.

At 4:30, before dinner, I had a chocolate smoothie, a delicious discovery I made this weekend. It consists of almond milk, which I have learned to make, raw cacao powder, agave sweetener, a frozen banana, and I threw in a few frozen strawberries. It tasted like a chocolate truffle!
These are destined to become a staple.

For dinner, at 6, I mashed an avocado with a bit of seasalt, threw in 1/2 cup of mung bean sprouts (that I sprouted myself) used celery sticks to scoop it up. Good, crunchy and satisfying. It's now 9. I'm not hungry and don't expect to before bed.

And all this I washed down with liters and liters of water.

So, it's not as horrible as I thought it might be, but there are some real downers. It takes a lot of preparation time, I have to go to the market every couple of days, it's hard to grab something on the go, except a piece of fruit or an cucumber, and I still have to cook for my family (although they have been put on alert that they will be fending for themselves more.)

It could all get terribly boring, eating this way. But we're going to a raw-food workshop this Saturday, so I'm sure I get some recipes and ideas then. But for now, I've got to go to the bathroom,
something I do alot these days. More on that next time.

Bet you can hardly wait.

Preparing for raw

Unlike my colleagues, I did have a last supper, and a fine one at that (thank you, Dish).

But I also started moving onto raw foods last week, making a (mostly successful) effort to keep raw for breakfast and lunch.

Those meals aren't complicated: Fruit smoothie for breakfast, guacamole and salad for lunch. Easy. And I don't mind repetition, either, so I could happily survive on the same fare for the whole 30 days. Dinner is going to be trickier, though, and will necessitate a trip to the grocery store after work for the makings of avocado gazpacho or nut pate.

Speaking of which, my grocery bill last week dwarfed Joann's: I spent nearly four times what I normally do. Some of that was staple food – almond butter, raw cashews, a probiotic digestive supplement – but organic fruits and vegetables ain't cheap.

My shopping haul included (all produce is organic unless otherwise noted):

• Four avocados
• Two bunches of  bananas
• Two pounds of conventional strawberries
• A half-pound of conventional blueberries
• Sea salt
• Almond butter
• Almond milk
• Two conventional jalepeno peppers
• Two tomatoes
• One green pepper
• Flax seeds
• Three oranges
• Two-thirds of a pound of kale
• Four pounds of celery

I confess, my kitchen is not terribly well equipped for raw foods. Although I have a blender, many of the raw recipes I've looked at so far call for a food processor and/or a dehydrator. I'm not keen on laying out the cash for either, which is going to call for creativity on my part when it comes to making dinner.

Why? Why Not?

I am not a risk-taker.

So when I say that I'm looking for a new adventure, I really mean I'm looking for a SAFE adventure. When Joann asked me to join this challenge, I was intrigued, but told her I’d have to look into it.

After a couple of days of scouring the Internet, I decided that if I hadn't killed myself with all the poisons I've apparently been pouring into by body for half a century by eating processed and cooked foods, I probably would survive eating fruits and veggies for a month.

But it's not as simple as it sounds. Although grabbing a carrot or banana seams easy enough, getting 1,800 to 2,000 calories through such low-calorie foods takes some engineering. But the people who eat this way are very creative, as you’ll see as we report our daily diets. Suffice it to say we'll be doing a lot of soaking, washing, cutting and blending.

I need to be honest here. Today isn't really the first day of this diet for me. In keeping with my need to be in control, I started transitioning about three weeks ago, because I hoped it would be easier on me physically and psychologically (and because I'm petrified of failure and wanted to make sure I could do it). And I wanted to avoid as much of the ''detox'' period as possible, because I still have to be sane and healthy for my family.

So it's been three weeks since I had any coffee, sugar or processed foods, and this last week I gave up all dairy and meat. And let's face it, once you give up that, it leaves little else. So since last Monday, I've eaten very little that's on the forbidden list. Just a cup of spicy bean soup, some stir-fry broccoli and a glass of wine.

But today is the official kick-off, and I'm almost looking forward to this. I've practiced growing sprouts (which I'm told are essential for us to eat) I've made two batches of almond milk (yummy) and I'm experimenting with different fruit and vegetable combinations for my smoothies.

But let's be clear about this, I'm eating Thai food on April 29.

The Last Supper

I wish I could tell you this last weekend before going raw was filled with all sorts of edible debauchery: piling on the pizza and burgers and sugary sweets. I know it’d make for a better story. But a) bogging down my system with that much junk before starting a cleansing diet is probably the stupidest thing I could do. And b) I got walloped with a horrible cold yesterday, so I pretty much had little choice but to make it a weekend of tea, chicken soup and sleep.

I managed to peel myself from my covers this afternoon to visit Glen at Catch a Healthy Habit so I could stock up on some last minute tips and supplies before tomorrow’s official start. It’s an unexpected find in downtown West Haven, but customers are coming from long distances for the café’s treats and supplements, and for the regular lectures and potlucks that Glen hosts there. It’s a cool little space, and I’m hoping to get our threesome out there for one of his events.

My biggest concern in going raw is getting enough protein, which I’m already lacking in my usual diet. So I picked up some containers of hemp seeds and chia seeds to rotate with the raw almonds, cashews and nut butters that I’ll look to as good sources of protein. I was still feeling like I got hit with a train, so I took Glen up on his suggestion for a pick-me-up shot of freshly-juiced wheatgrass. (It cracked me up when he opened his refrigerator – nothing but leafy greens and carrots. I'd like to do a side-by-side comparison with the sad state of affairs my fridge was about a week ago).

Yeah. My refrigerator doesn't look like this, either.

I tossed back the green shot and headed to my local health food store. Interesting note: I mostly shopped from the store’s perimeter. I noticed that because I mainly bought fresh produce, bulk or refrigerated items, I had little reason to venture into the main aisles of boxed, packaged and canned foods. Anyhow, I have to say I winced at the final bill at check out. It was about twice as much than my usual weekly bill. I’m thinking (and hoping) that since a chunk of that came from stock items that’ll stretch for weeks, I’ll have much smaller bills the next few times around.

Ok, so I’m not going to lie, though. Before hitting the check-out, I first hit up the store’s bakery for one final sweet treat: my favorites there, a jelly-centered linzer cookie. It is vegan (no dairy), if that somehow makes any difference (which I really don’t think it does). I expected it would be some sort of decadent farewell, but it was rather anticlimactic, really.

I ate the cookie. It tasted good. And that was about it.

And now, groceries unpacked and refrigerator stocked, I’m thinking a final hot bowl of chicken soup might be in order before my bed calls. How’s that for a last supper?

The cafe.

Look at my grocery stash. Who said we wouldn't have enough to eat on a raw food diet?

Going raw: Worth a shot?

Going on a vegan raw-food diet for 30 days strikes me alternately as a great opportunity to revise my eating habits into something healthier, and a living hell.

First the hell part: I like cooked foods. A lot. Giving them up is going to be a challenge, for sure. No steak? No eggs? No cheese? Ouch.

On the other hand, raw foodists rave about how energetic they feel all the time, and tout the various benefits of a chillier diet. Sure, I’m a little skeptical, and I wonder if I’ll spend the next 30 days with hunger pangs. But I’m also willing to give it a shot: Getting in the habit of gravitating toward healthy food can only be a good thing, especially given an irregular work schedule that makes it all too tempting to eat junk on the run.

The office wags seem to think I’ll be the first to drop out of our little experiment. Wrong, suckers. A month isn’t such a long time, and I can do anything for 30 days. Well, except for give up coffee.

Bored or Crazy?

In one of the few fantasies I allow myself, I find myself alone on a tropical island.

No meals to prepare, no homework patrol, no house to clean. No demands.

I have no need for clothes, because it is warm. My shelter is a lean-to that I have built. Food is not a problem because I am surrounded by fruits and vegetation — all the pineapple, papaya, mangoes, bananas, coconuts and green stuff I can eat. What more could a person need or want?

We shall see.

At least one part of my fantasy is about to become reality. While I wish we were about to embark on a journey to a yet-to-be discovered island, that’s not the story my colleague Joann pitched to our bosses, so I’ll have to settle for eating as though I were there. I’m not sure why I agreed to eating a raw diet for 30 days. Maybe as a wife for 25 years and mother of two teens, I’m looking for a new adventure or challenge.

For the past year or so, I’ve been on a fitness kick, exercising more, eating better and less. I’m sure to lose weight, and what 52-year-old menopausal woman wouldn’t welcome being a few pounds lighter going into summer?

That way, I’ll look great when I finally get stranded on that island. And I’ll be used to the food.

Ready for Raw

You can say I’m the ringleader of our raw food shenanigans.

I’ve been on a whole foods kick for the past four years or so, prompted by a minor health issue that traditional medicine could never quell. So I looked to alternative therapies, some part of which meant dramatically changing the way I ate and thought about food. No dairy, no sugar, no processed foods or red meat. No more minor health issue.

I can’t say for sure that’s what did it. But I can say I felt better than ever. My mood lifted. My skin cleared. This girl who always whined, “I’m so tired,” no longer craved her morning coffee.

The whole thing intrigued me, and I dove deep into this healthy living thing. I did a five-day juice fast at a California desert retreat center. I got back into a regular yoga practice. And I started swigging loads of greens juices. Blended spinach and pineapple? About this time last year, I called that breakfast.

And then? Well, then life happened. Bit by bit, with the stresses of the day, some of those goods habits fell to the curb. All of a sudden I’m making frequent trips stops to the office candy drawer. I’m not drinking much water and not getting much sleep. And these days the good baristas at Starbucks know me by my name and my (venti) order.

It all adds up to me typing at this very moment, candy wrappers and coffee cups in my trash can, feeling sluggish, foggy and unbalanced. I need a greens juice, stat. And I’m dragging my two raw-curious co-workers to drink one with me.