On the Raw Side II: Guidelines

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Here we go! Ok, so maybe I’m a tad crazy for doing this… again, but there is no denying that the results of my first mostly* Raw trip were pretty cool. My guidelines will stay almost exactly the same as my first challenge.

The Food

  • Raw Fruit – I’ll be eating “high fruit” and will eat whatever fruit is available at my local grocery store.
  • Raw Vegetables – Most of my veggies will be in the form of greens but I’m not going to avoid the other colors of course.
  • Raw Fats – These fats will primarily come from fruit and vegetables with limited overt fats like avocados and nuts (no oils).
  • Percentages – I’m hoping to keep my weekly averages to 80% or higher Carbs, 10% or lower each of protein and fat.
  • Fresh & bottled juices – I do own a juicer but I’m including bottled juice because I do live a very busy life.  I’m trying to be realistic and set myself up for success.  *This is why I called this “mostly” raw at the start.  Most bottled juice isn’t raw because it undergoes pasteurization. 
  • Water - I will try for 64 ounces a day – I really didn’t do well with this one last time.
  • 2000-2500 Calories per day – That seems like a lot of food for an average 30-something year old woman but I already know (from the last challenge) that my body can handle it.
  • Tracking – I plan to share my menu each day, complete with calorie count and dietary percentages such as carbohydrates, protein, fat and fiber.

The Exercise

  • I’m currently training for a half-marathon, so obviously I’ll be running.
  • I’m also doing an indoor cycling class for cross-training.
  • Other activities I expect to do include: TaeKwonDo, Figure Skating, and walking the dog (although he is running with me now).
  • Tracking – I plan to share my workouts each day as well as the estimated calorie burn.

The Results

  • Weight – I will not weigh any more often than once a week. The actual scale number isn’t important to me but I’ll record the changes for anyone wanting to see what is happening there.
  • Measurements – I will take measurements on Saturday but haven’t decided how frequently I’ll do them after that.

The Effects

  • I am planning to make notes about how I’m feeling and the effect these dietary changes have on my mood, energy…etc.

my little raw buddy

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About a month ago, my youngest asked if she could eat raw too. We were in the car with the other kids at the time who proceeded to rattle off a list of things she wouldn’t be able to eat if she was eating raw.

“Hmm, maybe I’ll wait till after my birthday,” she said.

Fast forward a few weeks, her eighth birthday passed and she forgot about eating raw. That is, until today. She saw me eating a big bowl of fruit and said, “Mom, can I eat raw too?” I asked if she was sure and when she wanted to begin. “Right now,” she said. The older three were in the kitchen and again began listing things that weren’t raw. She said she didn’t care, she wanted to eat raw anyway. She did ask if she could eat some of my dried pineapple if she was raw (they aren’t allowed to touch it). I guess I’ll have to share now.

I’m not looking forward to watching my eight year old go through detox. I warned her that she may feel bad at first… she was undaunted. Since I haven’t been 100% raw lately (despite wanting to be), I’m going to use this opportunity to have a “raw buddy”. I’ve mentioned before how difficult it is to be a lone raw vegan in a cooked vegan house (I can’t imagine how difficult it would be in a SAD house). Hopefully, knowing I’m not alone will help me make it through the first few days again.

This is also the child who has asked to run with me many times. I did take her out on a walk/run last week (and we’ll go again this week). She’s got to build up for a few weeks or so as she can’t run a mile without walking just yet.  She tends to go full speed, and then, of course, doesn’t have the energy to finish. I think the Husband plans to work with her as well on his lighter workout days. He did bribe all three girls to run 3/4 of a mile for seven bucks… which they did. Hmm, it’s amazing what a bit of cash will do for one’s motivation.

In light of my having a buddy, I think I will do another RAW challenge. I have 53 days till my next half-marathon. Could I eat raw for 53 days? My last challenge was 30 days (although I think I did 44 days before having cooked food)….. brief interruption…

… Ha ha! Well, the eight year old came in and noticed I was writing about her. She wants to do 53 days of raw too. Wow! This won’t be easy. I think I’ll help her make a chart for her room so she can mark her progress. I can’t help but wonder if there is someone out there who might want to join me in the challenge. Maybe you don’t want to go raw, but rather would like to try vegetarian or vegan first? Or maybe you have some other plan you would like to follow and participating in a challenge might give you some accountability. If that’s you, please leave a comment and then check in daily (or weekly if daily is too much) to let me know how you’re doing. If you’re planning to blog your progress, by all means, let me know where you live on the web. The 53 days doesn’t start till in the morning (although, so far, I’m 100% raw today), but you can jump in at whatever point works for you. You could begin on Saturday (that’s when I will log my starting weight because I try not to weigh myself during the week), which would give you a few days to work out your plan of attack for your challenge.

I’ll post tomorrow with more information about my personal challenge guidelines.

may the wind be with you

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Every time I run, especially in the winter, I consider which way the wind is blowing. When it is cold out, I try to run into the wind first, with the hopes of having it at my back once I start sweating. This is to keep me from freezing to death. Today was warmer; so, I thought I would start uphill with wind in my face/side hoping to end downhill, wind at my back/side. With winds at 15-20 mph and gusts up to 30, I was not enjoying the first mile and a half primarily uphill (about 200 feet of elevation gain). My pace slowed as I fought for ground. During that portion I crossed three streets, which meant coming to a complete stop when cars didn’t stop. I just love the drivers who let the runners keep going. Clearly they understand what it’s like to have to stop during a run. As I’m making this trek uphill, a runner passes me going the other direction, points at me and says, “great job!” Encouraged, I only had a half mile to go before I would turn around, I could make it another half mile. The last tenth of a mile before my turn, the wind died down a bit, or so I thought.

When that turn around came, I was excited. I figured I could now make up some of the time I’d lost. What I thought was a cease in the wind was actually a shift in directions. Suddenly, the wind was full in my face, coming from the south with fury. My heart sank. Not only would I not be making up any ground, I might actually lose some more. I have clocked myself running in wind and without, there is about 1 minute per mile difference for me. I was supposed to do four miles today, but fighting with the wind was too much. I wanted to quit at two miles, and then again at two and a half. Then, biker passes me again going the other direction and says, “you’re making great progress.” So, I decide that I can at least make it to the three mile mark. Which is what I did. The moment I stopped to walk I had shooting pain in my left knee. I walked back to the house choking down the urge to vomit. I started drying heaving when I got inside.

Currently I’m sitting on the sofa with an ice pack on my knee. The husband says icing is helping his knee (he ran over ten miles today). The Boy made me a green smoothie. I’m feeling the nausea leave and my energy return. Now that I’ve had some time to reflect on the run, I’m still sad that I didn’t complete the fourth mile and that my time was slower. On the other hand, the wind made me work harder, which will eventually make me stronger. I also got some sun exposure (hello Vitamin D), some cardio work, and a decent calorie burn. So, may the wind be with you… but when it isn’t, know that it’s making you stronger.

fighting off nausea

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I slept in later than usual this morning, not considering what this might mean for my indoor cycling class. I drank my “right out of bed” water and then downed about five cups of green smoothie. Normally, I have my smoothie several hours before the class. Five minutes into the workout I knew I had screwed up. We did intervals, climbing and climbing intervals. Hovering over those handle bars is the perfect position for puking. Only God knows why I didn’t throw up. Perhaps He was showing mercy on me as the embarrassment would probably mean the end of my attendance in that class. It was a difficult hour, but I finished the workout.

I made a terrible tasting smoothie tonight. I still have no idea why it was so bad but I was only able to drink about a third of it. The husband tasted it and couldn’t believe I’d made it through that much. It was date night so I resigned myself to a Naked Juice from the grocery store. Now that I look back on the day, I had quite a bit of juice.

Calories: 2,570
Carbs: 89.2%
Protein: 4.7%
Fat: 6.1%
Fiber: 44.9 grams
Exercise: burned 681 calories

cooked food coma

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I started out last week tracking my calories. Initially I thought I would be high raw but as the week wore on, and life’s stress piled up, I gave into emotional eating. I knew full well what I was doing too. It just seemed the fiery arrows were more numerous than usual. The more cooked food I ate, the more I craved it. The more I craved it, the worse I felt. It was like a cooked food coma hung onto me. Yes, I was still vegan. Yes, that’s better than eating SAD (Standard American Diet). And yes, I realize how crazy this must sound to anyone who has never been on a High Fruit Raw Vegan diet and even crazier to those on SAD. Obviously, when I eat vegan, I feel better than when I ate SAD, but once you’ve experienced what HFRV is like… everything else just feels like sub-par. Some people think this is all mental, but it’s not. Sure, your outlook plays a role, but I’m talking about physical well-being.

For example, I’ve slowly (like really slowly) been working toward a faster running pace. This has been difficult since the concussion last fall. Running was far more painstaking and I was even dreading it (would even skip runs because of the dread). Then I went HFRV for about seven weeks straight. I have never… did you read that?  I have never had that much energy in my life. Running became fun and my mile averages were getting better each time. I would actually have to reign in my ridiculous grinning during cycling class because I didn’t want people to think I was crazy. I would catch myself almost laughing because I couldn’t believe I was working so hard and not feeling wiped out. I would leave class with a spring in my step. Well, Monday was quite a different story despite my being optimistic about the run beforehand. Last week I noticed that my running pace was the same. It had been steadily increasing. Then on Monday, despite my positive mental state, it decreased. I had to fight so much for the time I got. After a few days with this on my mind, I decided I was going back to HFRV this morning.

Well, I woke up with a fever, chills, and nausea. There was no way this was a coincidence. It was another fiery arrow… except this one made me angry. I don’t like forced rest days one bit, so I used this one to my advantage.  I rested, read HFRV, drank more water, and ate raw. I felt terrible and wanted “comfort” food much of the day, but I continued to eat raw. My calories (2,150.2) turned out lower than I would like them to be, but I feel this was a good effort for a sick day.

Most people have no idea that they are walking around in a cooked food coma. It’s normal for them like it was normal for me.

Calories: 2,150.2
Carbs: 91.6%
Protein: 5.9%
Fat: 2.4%
Fiber: 61.7 grams
Exercise: None

Accountable Again (AA)

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I did not plan that title.  When I typed it in and saw the capital A’s, I just had to use it.

Hi, my name is J. and I’m a recovering anorexic/bulimic (without the puking).

People usually associate bulimia with purging, but not all bulimics induce vomiting. I would punish myself by not eating. Of course, eventually you become hungry enough to devour a biggie size of anything… plus every other plate at the table too. Enter guilt and bloating (which helps to convince you that you have gained ten pounds in one sitting), and you know what happens next.  Yep, repeat the cycle again starting with “I’m so fat” (even if you aren’t) and starvation. I don’t fall prey to this very often anymore (praise the Lord God Almighty!), but I do see glimpses from time to time when I lose the proper focus. Which is what brings me to the true point of this post.

I posted on Wednesday about the lack of trust I have with food when I don’t track what I eat. I despise tracking my food for several reasons. I think one of them is admitting that I need help. Because of this, I must rely on God for the discipline to write down what I put in my mouth. Don’t you just love that word, “discipline”? I don’t either. Today I resumed the discipline of tracking my food.  I have not smiled much as a result.  It’s a good thing the Husband volunteered to make me lunch when I got home from my indoor cycling class. Tired and hungry, I was poised to stay “to heck” with this tracking thing (which I would regret come morning).  He made me a delicious, raw Tortilla Soup*. Crisis averted! Making it through that moment has helped me finish out the day with a little better perspective.  I’ll talk about that tomorrow though.

I’m taking things a step further than tracking, I’m also going “Accountable Again”. No, I don’t plan to list out every bite with photos (like my RAW challenge). Let’s face it, I already have to type it once into my tracker and I’m not thrilled about doing that. What I will post are my daily calorie/percentage totals. This is purely to hold me accountable to tracking. I’m not out to prove anything and won’t step on the scale for now.

*We altered the Tortilla Soup recipe by eliminating the cheese and using a whole avocado instead of 1/4. We also use our own “taco seasoning” mix instead of the packaged stuff. Because the soup doesn’t get hot enough to kill the good stuff, it’s still raw… unless you throw in those tortilla chips :)

Today’s Numbers

Calories: 1948.6
Carbohydrates: 80.8%
Protein: 5.9%
Fat: 13.3% (can we say “avocado”?)
Fiber: 59.3 grams
Approximate Exercise Burn: -549 calories
RAW: 94.7%

so long old friend

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Almost two weeks ago my blender died.  His last blend was a banana ice cream that my family made for my birthday.  The ice cream was too much and his motor stopped.  We have used it almost daily (and more than once a day most of the time) since October 9th.  Prior to October, we had the blender for two years and rarely used it.

The Husband began researching blenders months ago in anticipation for the demise of the one we had.  We came to the conclusion that a BlendTec would suite our needs and our budget.  We went that night to see a demonstration at Costco and came home with one.  We’ve run it through about 100 cycles in less than two weeks (it keeps count).  I love that thing.  With my old blender, I would have to shove a spoon down in it to tamp the food toward the blade.  I haven’t had to do that at all with my BlendTec.

While it was a little sad to say goodbye to my old blender, I have had no difficulty saying “hello” to my new one.