Blog / low-fat raw vegan

after a week of switching things up, I want to take a moment to think about what I've noticed and what I might to switch up even more this week. it's a big experiment and I'm grateful to take the time to do this.

I notice that by day 6, I was not so hungry as I was previous days. Could be a part of my cycle and it could be that I'm still eating more fat than I really need to. I definitely notice that I've got an emotional connection to fat in food. Well, hell, I guess I have an emotional connection to eating in general! I mean, don't we all? We have to eat to survive. But I notice that if I bring back grains to my life, I'll start out really well, eating 1/2 cup and no more. Then something happens, I'll get a little lazy or a little hungry and I'll add a cup instead of 1/2 cup or I'll go for seconds. Then I'll read about how amazing brown rice is and will just go gangbusters! I used to make 1 lb brown rice (dry) to last for the whole week. We would go 7 days with it and in more recent times, the 1 lb dry brown rice after it was cooked would last us 3-4 days! (Granted it would also get put into the kids lunches) but this was surprising to me and I thought we were over consuming. Some days it would be gone in a little over 2 days and that's just craziness!

So this week I'll have to see if I can reduce the fat even more. **gulp**

It's the dinners where we have the biggest habit of over eating. It's the only meal that we typically share together and I am the kind of person that makes a lot of food in order to have some left over for the next day. This sort of invites overeating from the get go. The food always tastes great to the question of "Can I have seconds?" arises from the kids and I find myself thinking that too.

I would like to move more, too. I am finding that I'm both relaxed and energized this week and exercising helps me to use up some energy reserves so that I fall into a really good sleep. There were 2 days that I didn't move much and sleeping those nights were not sound.

My body has felt pretty good this week so that is encouraging.

I noticed by day 6 and 7 that I was wanting more savory veggies than fruit, particularly in the evening. This is what happens, I've noticed, even when I do juice fasts. The sweetness at first is excellent and then I want less sweet. So it will be interesting to see how this week goes.

I did a lot of paper writing for school last night and was too tired to write anymore so my apologies for missing the day yesterday. Yesterday was a really good day and I went to bed feeling grateful for a lot. Here were the highlights:

1) despite getting very little sleep the night before, I had a very productive day and I felt really good in my body. I'm not sure why it is so, but it doesn't matter. I was very grateful to be able to function

2) I met with 3 inspiring women who are creating in their hearts some pretty magical lives. We met with the intention to help each other with support and to keep each other accountable. It was a really nice hour in the morning.

3) Work moved along very fluidly and while the cafe traffic was slow, I was able to get other things done and move along to another item without getting my focus broken.

4) We received 7100+ yards of fabric! We've been waiting for this for nearly 2 months or more and this past week we were under the impression we'd get it on Wednesday, then Thursday, so to get it on Friday was great!.

5) It was excellent to see all that fabric but to move it around felt great, too. This was over 3 tons of fabric and the physical activity of this felt very satisfying to move around. I did it without tweaking my back or hips so for that, I'm extremely grateful. I'm also very happy and thankful for the 3 people that work with us that helped lug the fabric rolls, too: Mary, Meg and Cat.

6) My body has felt very fed this week as well as relaxed but alert and able to be productive. Winning combination for me.

7) I was able to get 3 papers written and posted last night for 2 classes.

8) Also very grateful for the chocolate samples that Katrina from Liberty Chocolates left for us! All 7 or 8 of us plus customers really enjoyed them!

So all-in-all, an extremely fruitful day. My kids had a good day, too. Matt got the most exercise moving the heavier rolls of fabric but we all got sweaty which was great.

This morning begins with the juice from a young coconut. I'm not very hungry yet and don't want to eat just because it's time to eat. The juice is hella refreshing though.

That's my story from yesterday. Many blessings to us all for a great day today!

xoxo
Linda

So this is day 6 and I have to reiterate this is SO much easier than doing a juice fast! LOL

The day began well enough. I woke up hungry again, which is nice. I had 2 bananas and a mango and felt pretty darn full after that. I posted up a paper that I had written the night before and since the house was quiet, wrote another paper. I went to work and had my usual smoothie (which was delicious.) I gave some to Meg to try and she seemed to really like it. She said she wished she had a longer tongue to lick the sides and bottom of the cup! :-)

I had to leave work early to pick up the kiddos. They were at an outing in the day. It was a long drive there and a long drive back. I took the highway to get there and absolutely hated it. Even though the views are beautiful, I just didn't like it. I found myself having a mental tantrum. I realize how much our thoughts create our environment because no matter how pretty the day was, I was not happy because I told myself I don't like to drive on the highways. Interesting.

I took the back roads to get home and felt way more relaxed. Then suddenly the day felt magical again. Isn't that some shit?

Got home and it was time to close up shop. Went home and made dinner. We made a vegan pizza for the kids, loaded with tons of veggies. For us, we moistened some rice paper and filled with hail to the kale, fresh salsa and fresh guacomole. It was HEAVENLY! Seriously - whomever it was that created the recipe for guacamole was an absolute angel. So yummy. I felt so satisfied from this tasty meal.

I drank 2 liters of water today but I didn't get to do much movement. But it was a good day. I watched What the Bleep do We Know? for my class. What a LONG film! OMG! Interestingly enough, they talk about intention and creating things out of our thoughts. How's that for synchronicity? :-) I just figured that out on my car drive when I was thinking myself miserable! LOL

Anyway, I wish you a good night. I hope you had a great day today.

xoxo,
Linda

Day 5 - September 5th I slept extremely well last night. I felt super tired in my bones and literally crashed. I don't remember falling asleep. I woke up feeling pretty well rested however I could have slept longer. I woke up HUNGRY this morning! I had 3 bananas and 1 mango. I looked this up on fit day - that's 450 calories, 1.7 g fat, 116 g carbs and 4.9 g protein. I felt quite satisfied to say the least. If I have breakfast, it's usually a green juice so somewhere in the neighborhood of 300-350 calories. By the time I got to about 1 pm, I was really hungry but didn't eat right away. Had a green smoothie which we've figured out is somewhere around 550 - 600 calories, about 20 g protein but I don't know the amount of fat or carbs. I'll have to ask Matt what he figured when he did the calculations and get back to ya. Was totally satisfied all day however I ate a bit of chocolate around 4:30 or 5 pm. It sounded very good to me. (I'm ovulating!) :-) I know that for many reasons but the general hunger is a clue for me. I don't usually have a growling stomach. Dinner was a whole bunch of vegetables. This is the time of year when farmer's markets and CSAs are fully abundant and I go a little crazy when I do my ordering. I got corn and broccoli and tomatoes and zukes and cucumbers and kale and oh boy I ran out of room in the fridge from all the plant life. I steamed the broccoli and the corn. I cooked up leeks with zucchini for the kids. We made Hail to the Kale salad. So dinner for me was hail to the kale, a small bit of the kelp noodles that was left, broccoli and corn. I am totally LOVING broccoli and corn with umeboshi paste on it. (Just a little bit) OMG! So good. A few hours later I made the fruit pudding again. Used the meat of 2 young coconuts (wasn't a lot of meat in there) plus bananas and the super ripe peaches. It's a hella yum dessert. Would be a hella yum breakfast or lunch or snack too. As I write this, I still feel pretty darn stuffed. I'm getting things done for my homework, for the housework and for the kids for their outting tomorrow. My energy is pretty darn ample right now which is good because I want to write a paper or two tonight, if I can. Other observations: did I mention the poops? Well um, it's still wonderful! I was seeking to eat fruit to have a little roto rooter action and it's working! OK, not that graphic or as bad as it sounds. I think that if it's possible for you to eat fruit - even low and medium glycemic fruits, then please do so! I'm really interested in this carb from fruit and veggies thing. I've always eaten lots of vegetables (well, in the last 11 years for certain) but like I wrote on an earlier blog entry, I wasn't eating lots of fruit because I thought fruit was not good for me. There's so many differing viewpoints on what's good and not good to eat. I seek to have my body tell me what's best and what isn't but I really did let peer pressure tell me that fruit wasn't good. I'm still apprehensive about this and yet, I'm just noticing some very nice positive things going on for me. Maybe it's the energetics: taking in the sweetness of life. Maybe the carbs and/or sugar help a person feel really good. I'm not blissed out like I get on a lot of raw chocolate (I can really feel kind of ecstatically high on raw chocolate) but I do feel pretty darn good. I hope it continues! :-) OK, I really want to get to my papers. Thanks for reading! smoochies, Linda

day 4 - sept 4th well today was a rather nondescript sort of day. nothing too spectacular to write about. well, that's not entirely true actually. breakfast was 2 bananas and a mango, 1/2 liter of water and went off to yoga class. We did a lot with our hips today and a lot on gratitude. I had walked so much yesterday that I was grateful for the yoga class. At some point, my hips got very tired with the poses and started to stiffen up - just the opposite of yoga! We stretched so much that my hips actually felt TIRED. The last time my hips felt worked like this was when I was doing physical therapy recently after some spasms occurred last May. My hips and legs just gave in by the time the class let out (well, not really but they felt spent.) I recalled having a deep relaxation experience during one of the poses and it sort of startled me. I typically feel invigorated from yoga and today I felt relaxation. It was good! I went home, cleaned up, then made some food for the kiddos and then went to work. lunch was a 32 oz smoothie that was tasty and went down all too quickly. I was rather slow moving all day after yoga. I'm usually got the yoga bliss mood going on after class, and am happy to report that I had it today too. Today though it was more a sense of exhaling: I've been able to really really relax. The past week or two, I've been so grateful for a deep sense of calming down within my body. I haven't relaxed in probably 17 years. I was very grateful for it although I have to be honest and say that I got a little nervous to relax. (Isn't that crazy?!) Then I talked myself out of that nonsense realizing it's the very thing I need to be doing more of. Still, it is a bad habit so I have to be mindful of this. I had another liter of water and got some work done. It wasn't a busy day at the cafe today and I was also grateful for that since it was gray outside (the first gray day in a long time) and my energy was that of a slow moving mammal. My legs were still mildly cramping up here and there - what they really wanted to do was rest. I'm on my feet a lot during the day and I was trying to be efficient with my movements but that didn't really work because I'd drop something or forget something as I was headed upstairs. I sorted out some chocolates from the other day and ate a bit. Really! It's just a habit! I didn't have any awareness - I just put the chocolate in my mouth. Amazing! (It was yummy though!) I made this without agave or honey - used lucuma and coconut nectar. So it wasn't super sweet. I also added a pinch of salt so that tasted nice, too. Flavors are definitely enhanced these past couple of days. Dinner was the same as last night. I was very hungry when I got home and ate a big serving of greens with kelp noodles and kim chi. A couple hours later the kids and I made a pudding of banana, strawberries, avocado and ripe peaches. It was very damn tasty. I had more water a bit later and here I am now. I realize that technically I should eat the fruit first. I'm just not in the habit of eating the dessert first. Maybe I can work on that this week. Some observations: 1) Even though my muscles are tired, I'm feeling stronger. This is major for me. I'm using muscles and they are letting me do it. *knock on wood* that this continues. 2) My body is relaxing and I think my adrenals are calming down. They've been maxed out for such a long time. I really hope I can get back to homeostasis. Well, actually, I'm sure I can. 3) The poops when eating a variety of fruit are great! Same for when eating only raw foods, to be honest. Fruits are the cleansers. I wondered today why people say, "oh, I couldn't eat fruit - it would go right through me." I thought, "well, what's wrong with that? it might take a whole bunch of garbage along with it?" LOL 4) I'll have to do a day on fitday.com so I can see the nutritional intake. It's way more food that I'm used to eating. I feel good though.Still, I'm very curious. 5) This is way way way WAY easier than doing a juice fast. Good night and sweet dreams, Linda

Labor Day, September 3rd Well, this is day 3 of something different. I feel and felt great today! Last night I was feeling a little detox-y and I admit, when I feel that way, I question whether or not I'm doing the right thing. I think it's good to question everything. I believe the body really tells us when something is good or not good. Today was a magical day. I had a great sleep last night and even slept in some today. The sun was shining like it was California today. So bright and beautiful. Everything was lush and green. Breakfast this morning was 2 bananas and a mango. Very delicious and it was easy to savor and feel grateful for every bite. I drank 1/2 liter of water and did some work on the computer. Had lunch - which was 32 oz green smoothie with a WHOLE lot of ripe peaches, bananas and a mess of kale. DELICIOUS. Also added rice protein powder, goji powder, water, chlorella tabs and VM green. Matt put in some bee pollen in. Bee pollen tends to give me slight cramping in my stomach for about 1/2 hour after I eat it. Not sure why that is and I've heard others have this experience too. This happens if I eat it with anything or by itself. We all went for a BIG walk in the woods. We started up Gould Hill, which is pretty steep and then we walked to a road that had a trail marking. It was a beautiful walk - first through a field and then into the woods. We exited the woods to a road although I'm not sure what road it was. We walked to Calais somewhere and it was beautiful. We headed back and got home. I have to say, this was the best I've felt during a hike. It was a lot of up hills and down hills and nearly no flat land. My body felt in great shape despite waking up to aching knees. (I had a private yoga lesson last Thursday which helped me to see how to really hold poses, my body, etc. I am learning how to use muscles and not just use my hyper-mobility for stretches.) We got back from the walk and I ate a banana and an apple. Both tasted absolutely amazing. I think it's fantastic that when we switch things up and simplify, the tastes and flavors of food become even more potent (in a great way.) I drank 1/2 liter of water and then took a shower. Drank some more water (1/2 of which was cold herbal tea and other 1/2 water) Went over to the cafe to package up those chocolate drizzled cheeze cake bites that I made on Saturday. There was chocolate drippings everywhere that had hardened. I took a bit of it and then another and another and another. SO delicious! We bagged up the dehydrated crackers I made, too. Went back home and made dinner. Dinner was absolutely amazing. I modified the kelp noodle heaven recipe and it was scrumptious. I didn't add the oils and added garlic, honey instead of agave and 1 orange. OMG! We put in like 5 or 6 jalapeno peppers with the seeds so this was a spicy dish! Served over kelp noodles, kale and spiral sliced carrots. The carrots sweetened things up a bit. Everything was marinating in the sauce to soften the kale, carrots and kelp noodles. I ate this over boston lettuce and some of my kim chi. OMG! I'll say it again - DELICIOUS! A couple hours later, we had dessert. Fruit ice cream. Frozen bananas with very ripe peaches. OMG. Super delicious. I think I'm in heaven on earth. It's beautiful food, honestly. Later I had more water and we all had a food soak with epsom salts and essential oils. Our feet feet incredibly happy! My stomach is quite happy. My mind is happy. My body feels great. I look forward to putting this day to rest with my gratitude and look forward to a good night's sleep. Thanks for reading and blessings, Linda

September 2nd, 2012

This is day two coming to a close. I began the day with local melon again. I got them from a local buying club sort of thing and they sent me more than I ordered so there's lots to eat. This was a pink flesh watermelon, organic and full of seeds. It tasted sweet and yummy. It was probably about a 3-5 lb melon and we split it in half, giving the kids some again. After the melon, I had some fresh strawberries that were yummy but didn't taste nearly as sweet as the melon. My daughter said it was nice starting the day with something so watery.

I had 1/2 liter of water after breakfast and began writing the last of the papers that were due today.

In the afternoon was the usual green smoothie. It hit the spot as I was pretty darn hungry by the time lunch time came around.

I finished my paper and we went for a bike ride in Stowe. I wanted to do the rec path twice but changed my mind after we drove by a girl who crashed her bike. it was pretty interesting that this happened. Just last week our friend went over the handle bars of his bike and thank goodness he was wearing his helmet because it had cracked in 3 places from the crash. We wore our helmets on this ride and I had this thought about, "what really could happen on a little bike path?" What a terrible question. The kids were riding when this girl toppled over her bike and her foot was caught in the spokes of her front tire. Thankfully there was a nurse at the scene. We helped to move the bike over and we all waited to make sure the girl's mother came to her. We went after the bike ride to a local bike shop and got me a better fitting helmet. (The one I was wearing was too small for my head.)

After the bike ride, I drank a full liter of water. We also had a tiny bit of Liberty Chocolate that I had bought ages ago. It still tasted very good. (We sort of have a tradition of eating chocolate after that bike path ride.) It was a GLORIOUS day out.

We got home in time for dinner. I made the kids some potato salad since I got potatoes from the local CSA and needed to do something with them. I added cukes, local onion, local celery and used the remainder pickle juice from local pickles I bought a few days ago. I added vegannaise for them. It tasted like a traditional potato salad and they were pleased.

I then added some cucumber and fresh tomato to the excruciatingly hot salsa I made yesterday. It helped only slightly to cool it off.

For dinner we had a BIG green salad with a tiny bit of the hot salsa, the last of the freshly made guacamole and some NOT TUNA that I made (had fresh local dill, local celery and onions to use so it made sense to make it. I kept the oil and salt out and added some heirloom tomatoes I got locally, too. Delicious. I put just a tiny bit of my homemade kim chi on the top and savored every last bit. If I have something similar tomorrow, I'm going to put it all in a collard leaf and eat it like a wrap sandwich with more dulse. I love those things.

This was a very filling dinner so it's just been water since. Matt is saying that his stomach feels bloated. I feel pretty good. I hope I sleep well. I was sort of restless last night.

I also notice that I'm having some kind of detox symptoms or something. I have to be sure to continue to sweat and drink lots of water. I'll keep you posted. I believe that even though I've been eating well, I've been eating a lot of fat and sweets again and so it's good for me to switch things up. I'm looking forward to taking this all gradually and to be open to the experience. I'm going to listen to my body to see what the best thing to do is. I have to be honest when I say that I'm sort of nervous about all the fruit but I'm also very happy to enjoy what I'm eating. I got in a rut of not really feeling like eating much, particularly for breakfast and even during lunch when I wasn't in the mood for a smoothie (it happens on rare occasions!) :-) I just wouldn't eat anything except for chocolate and then dinner would come around and I'd eat way too big of portions and then we'd eat some dessert. This wasn't the norm but it also didn't seem like a good habit to begin again so it was time to nip things in the bud.

Please wish me good luck. I shall keep you posted!

xoxo,
Linda

It's September 1st and I decided to switch things up again. For the last month or so I've wanted to do a fast but time really got in the way of that plan. I was looking at some food porn on a fruitarian website and really began salivating over the luscious fruit. So then I got to thinking about adding fruit to my diet.

I used to eat a lot of fruit in the early days of going raw and I got out of eating a lot of fruit because I began reading so many viewpoints. I remember a woman sounding shocked and shameful when I declared that I put 2 bananas in my green smoothies (serving 2 people.) She said 1/2 a banana per person was more than adequate. I allowed the shame of fruit being bad enter my mindset and I ate more and more greens with less and less fruit. I don't think there's anything wrong with eating more greens and less fruit, however, for me, I noticed that I felt badly if I ate fruit, particularly delicious fruits like mangos and bananas (the more high glycemic fruits.)

So, for some undetermined time, I'm going to eat fruit along with my vegetables. I said that I would start this on September 1st but I've been doing this for a week now and you know what I've already noticed? I feel very grateful for fruit. I feel happy to let some sweetness back into my life. The colors and the flavors are amazing and from eating all the greens, I don't need to add any sweetener to the fruits like I did when I first began a raw food diet.

I've also noticed that when I'm in doubt as to what to eat, eating fruit is very easy, quick and satisfying. I used to do a green juice in the morning and loved it. I added green apples and oranges sometimes to the green juice to make it sweeter and I didn't add much in the way of carrots or beets. 1 or 2 if I had them but the green juice was a green juice with some apple to sweeten. Then I'd have a big green smoothie for lunch and I felt very satisfied. Dinner was a big green salad with no dressing but maybe some cooked veggies and a small bit of brown rice and/or beans of some sort. Dinner was always delicious. I found that over time, I started increasing the amount of rice and I was craving desserts. As life got busier, the mornings were spent exercising vs. making a green juice so sometimes I wouldn't have breakfast because life got in the way. I've noticed that eating fruit in the morning is a nice way to start the day. And it's easy to pick it up and just eat it. I don't have to do anything fancy with it.

This morning I cut up a small yellow watermelon (local and organic!) and shared it with Matt and the kids. The kids didn't have much so Matt and I basically ate 1/2 a small watermelon each. I also had some tea just because. I didn't really crave it but the kids wanted some so I made some for me as well.

I went to the cafe and somewhere around 1 or 1:30 I made a big green smoothie. It had 3 small bananas in it and some strawberries and local kale. I did add some of the protein powder and maqui powder because I really like the way it tastes. I had 32 oz of this smoothie and it filled me up and satisfied me for hours.

While at the cafe, I was experimenting with food and made up these bite-sized chocolate drizzled cheeze cake drops. I tasted a bit of the recipe but didn't have a desire to eat more. (Maybe the fruit really does satisfy a sweet tooth!) I also cut into some lemon cheeze cake that Colleen made so that smaller pieces are ready to order. I did lick a bit of that bowl because lemon cheeze cake is my new favorite. I drank 32 oz of water and went home.

For dinner, we all about about 1 lb of greens between us. Matt and I had the most. We had a local mesclun mix that I got at the food stand that happens on Saturdays in front of the cafe. I also cooked up some local corn that I got from the food stand, too because it's just too damn nice to eat local organic corn in the summer. Bonnie gave me some artichokes so I steamed them up too for Matt and the kids. I'm not a big artichoke fan. I ate the cooked corn with some umiboshi paste - a new favorite way to eat corn, thanks to Colleen for that tip! I ate the HUGE green salad with homemade salsa and guacamole on top. The salsa was wicked hot and the guacomole was amazing.

A coupla/few hours later, Matt made some raw ice cream with frozen bananas and bing cherries. Very simple and very delicious. I drank another 32 oz in between the time I got home and the time I decided to be done with eating/drinking for the night.

So Day 1 was a success. We'll see what transpires for me for Day 2. Good night.

xoxo,
Linda