eat 75% raw

I have been eating nothing but sugary and terribly unhealthy foods since Friday, but I’m using my birthday as an excuse to be bad this week.

Ice cream? An entire slab of peppermint bark? Yes, please.

I’m going out to dinner with K tomorrow (my actual birthday) and then with my parents on Wednesday, and THEN IT’S BACK TO THE DIET. Well, not an actual diet, cuz I don’t do that. I really just mean cutting out sugar, processed foods and refined carbs – like before.

I am taking myself out to lunch tomorrow at the raw place down the street, so that’s something healthy. Sort of.

I am vowing to eat clean until my birthday, which is about 2 weeks away (Dec. 15th). I took a little detour from this goal for the past few weeks, but I wasn’t eating much of anything because I’m trying to get off my migraine pills and it made me feel weird. Hopefully my appetite will return soon and I can get moving with this.

No sugar, no refined carbs, raw milk/cheese only, no processed anything. Yep.

Not much raw today either. This is really eye-opening, because I really thought that I was doing better than this as far as rawness goes. It’s different when you see it written down. At least I am managing to eat quite healthy. Also, it seems like I really don’t eat that much. I guess I haven’t quite gotten my appetite back since my flu last week.

ginger pu-erh tea with cream and honey (ran out of agave)
handful of raw cashews
bowl of pumpkin soup (so good!)
chocolate lara bar
oat cereal (contains no sugar)
unsweetened soy milk
orange sparkling water
glass of blackberry kefir (agave sweetened)

I know these posts are terribly interesting for all to read. Heh.

ginger pu-erh tea with cream and agave
leftover tuna salad
whole wheat bread
1 pomegranate
a handful of tortilla chips
green smoothie: spinach, frozen peaches, banana, green powder
coffee (bad!)
2 eggs
hashbrowns
orange sparkling water
oat cereal
unsweetened soy milk

Hmm…not so raw today. I vow to make tomorrow more so.

rose tea with agave and cream
glass of blackberry kefir (agave sweetened)
a handful of dry oat cereal
1 mandarin orange
20 oz. juice: carrot, celery, ginger, beet
handful of raw cashews
1 granny smith apple
yerba mate
tuna salad (from scratch – broiled the tuna myself)
whole wheat bread
oat cereal with unsweetened soy milk
chocolate lara bar
sparkling water

I think I’m going to start tracking what I eat every day for a little awhile, so I can see just how much I am actually eating raw right now and add to that. Things make more sense to me when I write them down. I’m also vowing to try one new raw recipe a week, which I might post here too.

Ok, so here is today’s list. It’s not very much because I’m still getting over this awful flu I had last week. I’m going to put all the stuff I eat that is raw in bold letters. I’m also currently OFF any refined sugar or carbs. Only agave and whole wheat stuff for me.

rose tea with cream and agave
glass of blackberry kefir (agave sweetened)
orange sparking water
chips and salsa
taco salad: lettuce, avocado, salsa, cheese, beans, shrimp
iced tea (unsweetened)
1/2 pomegranate
the rest of yesterday’s raw pudding (about 1/2 cup or so)
small bowl of oat cereal (contains no sugar)
unsweetened soy milk

This is different from the raw chocolate mousse, and quite easy to whip up.

1 avocado
1 banana
5 dates, pitted
3 spoonfuls of cacao powder
a splash of agave
1/3 cup of water, maybe less

Blend until smooth and creamy. Eat the entire thing in one sitting and overdose on chocolatey goodness.

I really want to start working on this goal. I’ve been really lazy lately, not wanting to put the work in to go more raw. K and I have also been eating cake and pie and pizza a lot these days. Bad bad bad.

I bought a dehydrator off of my co-worker about a month ago, and it is wonderful. I really have no excuse now! It’s not all THAT much work to eat raw, it just takes a bit more planning ahead than usual.

I made raw chocolate mousse, and it was quite possibly the best thing ever. Just had to share.

This goal is fun. I’m not really interesting in going 100% raw, nor am I interested in being entirely vegan, but I do think that learning new ways to prepare healthy food can only be beneficial in the long run. I’ve also been reading a lot about incorporating raw dairy into my diet, and how raw milk is supposedly a superfood. Sounds interesting, and worth a try I suppose. I don’t eat a whole lot of dairy to begin with, so switching it out for the raw stuff (which is more expensive) wont be a total bank-breaker.

Speaking of money, some purchases I’d like to make in the near future that are directly related to this goal:

1. A good dehydrator. I’ve been using my oven on the “warm” setting for the many recipes that call for dehydration, but I feel like I’m wasting a lot of energy doing this. A dehydrator has stacking trays so you can dehydrate a lot more at one time, and most of them have a timer of sorts.

2. A mandoline slicer. This is great for slicing veggies extra thin, which I’ve been doing by hand and is frankly a pain in the ass. I’ve been coveting this one from Amazon. I’ll probably see if I can find it in a store this weekend.

3. More storage containers. Raw food requires a lot of pre-preparation, so I have a ton of pre-soaked, pre-sprouted stuff stored in the fridge and I seem to be lacking the storage containers I need. There’s a lot of stuff in bags or in bowls covered with foil, which is messy and isn’t working for me. Also, I been buying a lot of dry goods in bulk and it would be nice to have them organized in the pantry. This might have to wait until after the move though.

I know this is all terribly interesting.