Despite the overscheduled craziness, I have not fallen too far off track in my new dietary endeavor. Last weekend I ate more cooked food than I would have liked (i.e., less than two out of every three meals was raw), but I didn’t beat myself up about it. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Besides, I learned a valuable lesson from it: too much cooked food makes me feel crappy. I get stomachaches, I feel bloated, I’m lethargic, and I keep eating even when I’m not hungry – it’s not pretty. When I eat raw food, I feel incredibly light and energized, digestion is easy, and I stop eating when I am satiated. Not only that, but I rarely have cravings, even for dessert! This revelation has inspired me to up the ante, so this week I am aiming for a max of 4 cooked meals. I am interested to see what kind of additional benefits it will bring! Overall, I would say that this experiment is going very well and I can now easily imagine this becoming a permanent lifestyle change.

I purchased a new uncookbook, RAWvolution by Matt Amsden. I have yet to make anything from it, although I have chosen several meals from it to make this week. If the pictures are any indication, though, the food should be beautiful and delicious! I have made more recipes from Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen by Ani Phyo. Verdict: ehhh… For more information, read my upcoming blog post/book review.

I have also discovered a wonderful service provided by the Orange County Library System: you can go to their website, search through the catalog, and request that books of your choice be delivered to your home. How much does such a convenient service cost, you ask? NOTHING. That’s right, it’s free. Now maybe I’m oblivious and all libraries offer such services, but I think this is amazing. This is such a time/energy/gas/money saver! So far I have checked out: Green for Life by Victoria Boutenko, The Raw Food Detox Diet by Natalia Rose, and Raw by Charlie Trotter and Roxanne Klein (plus a few yoga DVDs, of course!). I have also purchased The Sunfood Diet Success System by David Wolfe, which I am told is the Bible of raw foodism. I’m about halfway through The Raw Food Detox Diet, and I think it is a decent book for someone who comes from a SAD lifestyle. It is geared toward a mainstream audience (which I appreciate), but doesn’t provide much information for people who already eat a fairly healthy diet. I have learned a lot about food combining (which is complicated!), but she also gives a lot of advice without providing any explanation. I’m sure this was to shorten the book, but I prefer to know why I’m supposed to do something. I also found it odd that she recommends Splenda as a sugar substitute. It just doesn’t seem to jive with the rest of her philosophy. I recommend this book for people who need a diet overhaul and want a more moderate approach to raw foodism, but if you’re already pretty healthy, then it won’t give you much groundbreaking information. I’ve also flipped through Raw, which is one of the most beautiful books I have ever seen. This is to be expected, I suppose, coming from a top chef like Charlier Trotter. I am not even going to attempt any of the recipes – they are complicated and lengthy – but it would make a lovely book for the coffee table. If you want some of this five-star, gourmet raw food, check out Roxanne’s in California!

Speaking of raw restaurants, there is some exciting news for Central Florida: we are getting our own raw restaurant! Talk about good timing. Matthew Kenney, co-author of Raw Food Real World and one of the leading raw chefs in the country, is opening up Café 118 in Winter Park. (FYI: the “118″ means 118 degrees, which is commonly believed to be the highest temperature you can heat foot before the enzymes are killed.) It should be opening later this month; for more information, check out www.cafe118.com.

As a final note: you may have noticed the little box at the top right of the site. I have decided to track my weight, energy, focus, mood, strength, and exercise to get a better sense of how raw food affects me on a day-to-day basis. I am tracking weight just to see if there is a general upward or downward trend, or if my weight remains fairly stable (I know that weight is not the best indicator of “size,” but it’s the best I can do). Energy, focus, and strength will be rated on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being really poor and 10 being amazing. Prior to eating raw food, my energy and focus were usually pretty low and my strength varied daily. I hope to see some progress on all three fronts. Mood will sum up, in one word, how I felt that day. Of course, we go through many moods everyday so this will be hard to do, but it will help me track if I am generally happy or not. Exercise will help me keep track of my daily physical activity, which is directly connected to energy and strength. I will be able to produce monthly reports based on these status updates, which will allow me to see if raw food is helping me or not from a non-scientific statistical perspective. Feel free to check out the box to see how I am doing!

P.S. I would just like to give props to my fellow raw foodist, Chelsea Ritter-Soronen! She is out fighting the good fight with Greenpeace Czech Republic by tree-sitting in the newly-founded state of Peaceland. For more information, check out their site: http://www.peaceland.cz/.

1. Be flexible. This is by far the biggest lesson, and I’d venture to say it holds true for any big lifestyle change. Don’t get upset if you have to learn things the hard way. In fact, this is part of the experience, isn’t it? For me, this lesson holds most true when it comes to cooking and food prep. From what I remember, I essentially taught myself how to cook (although I’m sure I had plenty of help from my mom!) when I was in high school. I’m sure I struggled at first; after all, no one is born knowing the difference between “minced,” “julienned,” “diced,” and “chopped,” nor the difference between sautéing and stir-frying, roasting and broiling, etc., etc., etc. But after plenty of trial and error (not to mention lots of cookbooks and issues of Cooking Light magazine), I caught on pretty well. Learning to uncook raw foods is like starting all over. This can be frustrating for me, since I am used to knowing what I am doing in the kitchen. I know, however, that I will eventually catch on, and that it will make me even more skilled in the long run. In the meantime, I just need to remember to stay flexible.
2. Don’t start out with a bunch of fancy equipment. I’m sure there are plenty of raw foodists who will disagree with me, and they have a right to do so. At first, I was concerned by my lack of fancy equipment (don’t get me wrong, I have plenty of regular cooking equipment, but raw cooking it like a totally different animal). Most raw cookbooks talk about Vita-Mixes, mastication juicers, Excalibur dehydrators, Saladaccos, mandolines, and ice cream makers – none of which I have, and most of which I will not be able to afford for quite a while. Luckily, I was already equipped with a decent food processor and a basic blender. Your options as far as raw gourmet food will be limited without the fancy equipment, but I think that, in the beginning, that is a good thing. It will force you to simplify and focus on the basics, which I believe will help the detox and transition process in the long run. Which brings me to my next point…
3. Focus on fresh fruits and vegetables. This may seem obvious; after all, most people think that raw foodists live off salads alone (I did, up until about a month ago). Not so! There are many beautiful raw gourmet cookbooks out there, and I fully intend to purchase and experiment with most of them…eventually. This past week, though, I have felt better and enjoyed my food most when I ate fresh fruit and vegetables, plain and simple (although I also love my smoothies!). It is visually and texturally appealing, and you will undoubtedly feel lighter, cleaner, and more energized. Add in nuts and seeds when you need additional calories or protein - but don’t eat mindlessly, or it can easily get out of hand!
4. Eat as much as you want, whenever you want… but listen to your body. This is especially true if you follow lesson #3, since fruit and vegetables are pretty low in calories. I have read over and over again that you will be extra hungry – ravenous, even – in the early stages of transitioning. Boy, has this proven to be true for me! I have found that I eat once every hour or two in the morning and early afternoon, but then I have almost no appetite for dinner. This is highly unusual for me, since dinner has always been my biggest meal. I’m still working on making the shift mentally, but I am a big proponent of following your body’s advice, so listen to it. If you’re hungry, eat. If you’re not, then don’t, even if it is “meal time” (meal times, after all, are pretty arbitrary). And don’t worry too much about calories; I have heard many times that the appetite drops off after a while, and most people lose weight even though they are eating more.

SUMMARY OF WEEK 1:

As you can see, there have been some ups and downs during this week, but all told, I’d say it has been a very positive experience. I don’t think I have entered the “detox” phase yet, probably because I’m still eating too many cooked foods. I have noticed that I have had no cravings on days that I ate mostly raw, though – not even for dessert! Usually, I have strong cravings for something sweet at the end of the day, but not so this week. I hope that keeps up, because I really do feel like I need to cut down on unnecessary sugar. I’m also going to replace some of my cooked dinners with simple, raw dinners, because cooked foods just haven’t appealed to me the same way they used to. I’ve essentially decided that I’m going to eat mostly raw (except for ingredients that I am still finishing off), but if I want something cooked, I will go ahead and have it - no guilt. Each week I’ll explain a little about what I’ve been eating and how many meals have been raw. I will also take a “sample day” from that week and do a nutritional breakdown, so we can make sure I am getting all my necessary nutrients. I’m excited to kick it up a notch!

And to end today’s post, here is..

RACHEL’S RECIPE OF THE WEEK:

Okay, so maybe calling it a recipe is a bit of a stretch, but cut me some slack, I’m just getting started! In the raw world, there is this near-fanaticism about “green smoothies.” What is a green smoothie, you ask? It is a loose term for any smoothie that somehow incorporates vegetables, most commonly of the green leafy variety. Some people like thick, intense ones (such as Sarma’s Giant Thick Green Shake), while others simply add powdered superfoods supplements. I am somewhere in the middle. I tried Sarma’s, and it was quite tasty, but I determined that you really need a Vita-Mix because otherwise it is just too chunky (which goes against the entire concept of a “smoothie”). Nor can I afford supplements (and I prefer to get my nutrients from the veggies themselves, if possible), so I add a moderate amount of leafy greens to my fruity smoothies. Yes, they turn green. No, it does not taste like liquid salad. I am perfecting my Tropical Citrus Green Smoothie, which will likely be the next recipe. Enjoy!

Banana Berry Green Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 bag frozen berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, or a mix) or fresh berries plus ice cubes
1 banana
1 Tbsp. protein powder*
1 Tbsp. flax meal
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean, whole
Stevia (or sweetener of your choice), to taste
water or juice, as needed
1 bunch greens, washed and torn (spinach is my favorite, but it’s a good idea to mix it up!)

Instructions:

Add banana through Stevia to blender. Blend. Add water as needed to keep it moving. When it is smooth, add half the greens. Blend. Add the remaining greens. Blend until it is completely smooth. Taste, and add additional water, vanilla, or Stevia if desired. Pour into a large glass, and revel in the fact that you are about to drink more fruits and vegetables in one sitting than most people eat in a day.

Yields: ~40 ounces

*I am still using up my non-raw foods, so I used vanilla rice protein. Once it is out, I’ll be using hemp powder. If you don’t want to use any type of protein powder, I would suggest adding ground nuts or seeds. The protein helps you stay full longer, so the smoothie can be a full meal.

I realized that I needed to push my diet to the “next level,” but I didn’t know what that meant until my trip to San Francisco last week. Although I’d always been wary of raw food, we visited a restaurant called Cafe Gratitude in Berkeley. It is an (almost) all raw restaurant, and it totally changed my perspective on the diet. I had a “pizza” and the most amazing chocolate/banana/walnut cake. The food was delicious, but more importantly, I felt energized, light, and “sharper” than I had in a long time (which is saying a lot, because we were worn out from walking everywhere). I realized that a raw food diet doesn’t have to mean eating salad all the time, and that it had the potential to help me achieve a healthier, happier life.

I spent this past weekend acquainting myself with the basics by reading Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen by Ani Phyo and “The Easy Way to Get Started and Succeed with Raw Food” from www.kristensraw.com. I’m also lucky to have some supportive friends who have experience with raw foods (thanks Chels!). I have determined that, to start, I am aiming to eat 2 raw meals a day (as well as any snacks) with one cooked. If that goes well, then I will slowly increase the amount of raw food I eat. However, I have no intention of being strict, extreme, or even 100% raw (unless I end up loving it so much that I really want to) - I just want to find a healthy balance.

I have decided to start this blog about my journey into raw foods to maintain motivation and be a “progress report” of sorts. I also hope it will help anyone else who is interested in going raw. I’ll try to post daily to track what I eat, how it makes me feel, etc. Comments, suggestions, and questions are always welcome!