Monday, June 16, 2008

Raw baby Raw

It is day six of my easing in to the raw revolution and I have to say, it really fits.  The food is sooooo delicious and while I am a little overwhelmed at all the ingredients and tools one needs to prepare a simple meal, I am starting to get a handle on it.

These past days have been simple.  I have been drinking my green lemonade -- which is just beyond delicious.  It is a head of romaine lettuce, a bunch of kale, two apples, one lemon and a piece of ginger.  Run the items through the juicer and this green nectar of life is there for the drinking.  I enjoy every lip-smacking sip.  Thoroughly.

After I drink the juice I am supposed to be eating fruit for "breakfast," though I put it in quotes because I am finding my own times that are not really traditional.  I have hiked before juicing and I have juiced before hiking ... I am not really sure what the perfect fit is yet.  If I don't juice first then I have some fruit, but after I've had the juice I no longer have any appetite for anything.  I am sated.

What I especially  like about the whole thing is that the focus is NOT on food!  It's a simple here are the foods you are allowed to eat and the sky's the limit when it comes to preparing them.  To me the focus is on feeling good.  I actually feel my body buzzing ... I was reading about the various frequencies that foods have and since I have been ingesting only high-frequency foods, I am telling you, I can feel it.  I have all but given up sleep!  I have never needed a ton -- but now I am finding that the wee hours, which have always been my favorite, are now available to me feeling alive and awake.  I kind of like it.  I have been getting so much reading done.

Peter has also granted me the freedom to do this without trying to incorporate the whole family.  Which basically means he comes home starving and the smell of pizza wafts through the house!  I am not concerned though -- I will get them all on board -- it's just a matter of time.  Right now I am just eating the bare bones of fruits and veggies.  My salads are delicious but not terribly inspired and I am not even bothering with smoothies, but instead just noshing on berries and the occasional banana.   My protein is in the form of sprouts, avocados and nuts in my salads, but I am definitely not eating enough to sustain everyone else at this point.  I think my body is just adjusting and it is perfectly happy having that subtle hunger feeling.  It's not painful, it's almost a reminder of you know, you could eat if you want to.  But nah, I'm good.  I can feel my taste buds changing and now some strawberries are literally almost too sweet!  It's pretty wild.

It's pretty cool.

Another interesting thing I've found is that if I stop eating and drinking the power juice, I can chill out.  I almost become too consumed with energy and creativity and my mind is racing and I am filled with such positive energy, it's kind of crazy.  I mean, I will just sit around with a big smile on my face.   I am learning to listen to my body.  To ask it, are you hungry and if so, what do you want?  Strawberries?  Nah.  A banana.  No.  A carrot?  Yeah!    There are also some basic rules to follow as far as not combining foods, and I am very on board with this.  I will faithfully wait a full half an hour before eating a fruit after veggies, and usually by then I am not interested in it anymore.  For if I eat fruit, then I have to wait a half an hour before eating anything else.  Despite the fact that hours and hours go by without my eating anything because I don't want to mix, I feel sated.  It's that juice.  It is a wonder elixir.

Today before I went to play tennis, I had eaten my "lunch" at 4:00, and that was on top of just the juice.  I was a little concerned that I hadn't eaten enough, so I threw in a piece of sprouted grain bread into the toaster (yes, it is allowed at this point) and spread some almond butter on it.  I swear, I was swooning while I ate it.  It was so good.  And there was hardly any of it.  The bread itself is hardly 1/4 inch thick and it was a teeny square, think a piece of bread without the crust.  And I thought wow, I can't believe this is filling me up.

I've done different detox programs before, crazy diets, what have you, and I have the willpower to launch into things full bore.  But this is different.  This feels right.  I even started it on a Wednesday instead of the traditional Monday!  I started it when it was time.  

Over the weekend we went out to eat with friends and I figured I'd employ the 80-20 rule and have something cooked for dinner, perhaps some fish.  But there was a veggie wrap on the menu, so even with the intent to cheat a bit, I ended up staying almost 100 percent on the program, the only crazy thing I did was eat non-0rganic.  And that made me feel good -- like it will be possible to incorporate it into my everyday life.

I am choosing to make it easier for myself -- like tonight after tennis I didn't join the others for a drink in the bar -- but instead returned home to my already prepared cabbage and mung bean salad with a peanut sauce *YUMMY*  and that was okay too.  It's like it's all alright, all okay, all the way it is supposed to be.

It's so hard to explain.  Because truly, how can ingesting a certain type of food change your outlook on life?

Because food is powerful.
F00d is beautiful.
Food can kill.
Food can bring you to life.

I choose life.

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