The End of The Rawvolution

today would be day 5, but a cooked meal is gon' come. i've decided to end my raw adventure 2 days early. the primary reasons are that i don't feel well enough to go to the gym (something i try to do at least 4-5 days a week), i don't feel like i'm getting enough nutrients, and i don't have nearly as much energy as i expected to have. i have much less than i usually do. i also have yet to see any cleansing benefits, unless you count this semi-pimple on my cheek. granted, i'm sure this lifestyle takes more than a week to get used to, but 6 days was all i had alotted for the entire process, so anything i hadn't acomplished in 4 days, i doubt would come in the remaining 2. so i realized that i had, indeed, gained what i had wanted from the process. and had i continued to the initial finish line, it would have simply been deprivation at that point; it would no longer be about me. it would be an effort to do 6 days just because i had said i would and to avoid telling everyone, sistergarteners included, that i had quit.

so i'm leaving this part of the venture. i'll take a lot of what i learned and incorporate it into my daily lifestyle. for starters, i'll pay a lot more attention to by body and what it needs. and i'll be a lot more creative about incorporating various fruits and veggies into my diet.

thanks to the girls, the fiancé, and the sistergarteners for your support during this process. and special thanks to tina for all her professional wisdom, suggestions, and recipes.

when i sell a million copies of my next book, i'll be able to afford raw restaurants and raw chefs who know a hell of a lot more about a raw lifestyle than i do. maybe then i can give it a more sophisticated attempt.

for now... my first un-raw meal? i don't know yet, but i'm pretty sure it involves bread. goodness, i miss bread.

be. fly.

rhythm

Raw Week 2009: Day 4

it's day 4. what else is there to say?

but seriously, not much is new. banana-spinach smoothie for breakfast/snack. not as sweet as i would like. i also ate a banana because i was a little hungry.

one thing i'm really grateful for during this experience is the fact that it's making me more conscious of what i put in my body. my co-worker offered me some organic "apple" sauce yesterday (or the day before??? they're all blending together at this point). it was actually made of various berries, none of which were apples, lol. there were no preservatives, so i actually got excited for a moment. then i saw the added sugar. that's a no-no. i would have never paid attention to that before. i do check the ingredients on most of the items i purchase, but it's mostly for meat fat or meat stock in canned items or flavored rice. i know canned items and flavored rice aren't the healthiest purchases, but i do eat them. a lot. and i want to make sure i'm not eating chicken fat. if i want to eat chicken fat, i want to at least have some chicken with it. and i rarely eat chicken so...but i digress...my point is that this process is making me pay better attention to what i eat. and i'm sure this will carry over when i go back to eating cooked food and dairy. i would kill for some rice pilaf right about now.

12:23 pm: i've determined that not only does vinegar stink, but i also don't care much for the taste. since i didn't eat my salad yesterday for lunch or dinner, i attempted it for lunch today. since i actually tasted the dressing after i made it (and it was okay), i'm assuming the flavor has gotten stronger as it's been sitting in the container. raw lesson #246: eat it when you make it. so now i'm munching on celery, carrots, and the broccoli and cucumbers from said salad (with no dip). is this over yet?

speaking of which, i'm giving serious consideration to ending this venture early. the fiancé is encouraging me to stick with it. i think it's because he's responsible for dinner on the weekends. he says it's because he wants me to stick to the goal i set. as i'm not a quitter, i don't really feel bad about quitting. is that my biscuit craving talking?

tenisha says: you've gotten what you wanted, to be more aware of what you put in your body. *round of applause*

maybe i can turn this into a venture of learning how to quit without guilt. then i can incorporate THAT into my lifestyle. i'm a genius.

i'll keep you posted, sistergarteners.



be. fly.

rhythm

Raw Week 2009: Day 3 (Vinegar Stinks)

the girls and i are starting to become concerned that we're not hungry enough. speaking for myself, i feel fine. i actually feel great at moments, but i just KNOW i need to be eating more. however, it's very difficult for me to eat when i'm not hungry (unless, of course, i'm just being greedy or emotionally eating). so i guess i should say it's difficult for me to eat simply for nutrition when i'm not hungry. at any rate, i'm going to make an effort to eat more today. i certainly don't want to make this an unhealthy venture.







oh, and vinegar stinks. as i was making my creamy avocado dressing, guacamole, and berry green smoothie (that's kinda cute...it's "berry green," lol), the fiancé entered the kitchen and proclaimed "it smells like feet in here." it was the vinegar. and i don't disagree. every time i use it (which i never did before this experiment), i either think of sweaty men (not the sexy kind) or easter eggs. vinegar stinks.


now for some photos of raw creations submitted by the girls:



beverly's cookies with her brand new dehydrator:


























ada's delectable raw salad with homemade balsamic vinegarette dressing:






































ada's holy guacamole (actually, there are onions in it, which deems it unholy in my eyes, but...) with fresh celery and baby carrots:































my own guac isn't as cute as this, i don't think. so i shan't post it.

1:22pm: email to the girls:
lol. i meant after this, if there is an after, which there will be for me. i, for one, can't WAIT until sunday, which is when i have decided to end this journey. i just tried to eat lunch, and i only felt hungry enough for my snack, so i ate the veggies and guac. i had to force myself to eat at least half. i don't mind not being hungry, but i just feel like i can't be getting enough nutrients because i'm hardly eating anything.
---

i'm sure this is about control, as i like having it (control, that is). day 2 was great. day 3 started out great. let's see what i think about it by the evening. ugh.



8:56pm still grazing. about to attempt to eat at least part of the salad i made for lunch.



ada's strawberry banana pineapple orange smoothie:
















10:43pm: ate some grapes. drank some water. resisted a packaged pasta side dish i made for the fiancé. i'm wasting SO much food.













see ya on day 4, sistergarteners.


be. fly.


rhythm

Raw Week 2009: Day 2

yesterday was rough. i went plum crazy at the end of the night. i don't remember very much of it, other than the fiancé beginning to lose patience; he tends to encourage sleep when i'm tap-dancing on his nerves. he was eating a grilled turkey and cheddar sandwich, and i just wanted to SMELL it. i don't even eat turkey! i was desperate. but let me be clear about why i was so hungry. i couldn't decide on what to eat. every time i chose something, i had one bite and was done with it. this could become a very expensive practice, so i just stopped eating. i realize i need to be more creative in order to satisfy my hunger (and get enough nutrients and calories to survive this week). i can't figure out if this is just grazing, or if i'm just mentally dissatsfied with my food options.

so, in the midst of my mania, i decided to make raw peanut butter. i don't have a spectacular food processor (it's just okay), so i started to panic when the peanut mixture stopped mixing. fortunately, this is when the fiancé came home and intervened. while he's nobody's chef (i was shocked he even made his own grilled turkey sandwich, which i'm sure he only did to save me the torture of making it for him), he stepped right in, added some water (i had only used raw peanuts, honey, sea salt, and olive oil based on varying recipes from the internet), and saved my peanut debacle. i had him stop blending before it was anywhere near smooth, for fear that my food processor was going to explode. i can't determine whether that was a rational thought or if it was just my crazies talking. at any rate, the result was a slightly crunchy, sweet and salty blend that was yummy on a celery stalk. of course, as with everything else last night, i was done with it after one bite. i refrigerated it, hoping it will make a good snack tonight. shout out to my boo :).

needless to say, the crazies didn't allow me to prepare today's lunch last night. so it was snatch and grab, raw diet style. i made my green smoothie (banana, strawberries, spinach, and water) and grabbed a banana, some green grapes, some strawberries, and a plum. i still had a bottle of water and a couple of boxes of raisins in my office desk.

i've heard from several raw foodists that the first 2 days are the hardest. well, on top of that, my first day was a long work day, and day 2 began with an office meeting with coffee, bagels, and donuts. now, as much as i love donuts, i usually don't eat them at these meetings for fear that i might devour the entire spread all by my lonesome (donuts are one of the few sweets i'm weak for). but, i do usually grab a bagel with cream cheese. and today i literally fantasized about scooping the cream cheese container with my finger. i'm still thinking about it, actually. send help.

4:11pm: i wasn't very hungry today. after my smoothie, i only had some water, a banana, and a box of raisins. i should have at least eaten the grapes, but i just wasn't hungry. and i must say, at the risk of being crass, i thought this process would be more cleansing. i can't say that it has been. eh, well. at any rate, i feel great today. my energy is much better than yesterday. aside from the cravings, that is. but i realize the cravings are more about comfort than hunger or deficiency. i'm craving junk food, BREAD, and my sisterfriend's vegetarian chili at the moment.

Raw Week 2009: Day 1

raw week has begun. last night, i packed my lunch and snacks for today (something i rarely do that far in advance; i usually throw something together or grab a frozen vegetarian breakfast and lunch on my way out the door in the morning). for today, i prepared a salad for lunch (spinach, diced grape tomatoes and carrots, sliced cucumbers, and homemade balsamic vinegarette dressing: 1/4 c. balsamic vinegar, 1/2 c. olive oil, optional basil and sea salt). i tasted the dressing, and it was pretty yum for my first stab at homemade dressing. i guess it's supposed to be, considering it only has 4 ingredients, which are whisked, not blended. but i digress. for snacks, i packed some green grapes, one celery stalk (sliced in half lengthwise, then cut into thirds), and a 6-pack of sun-dried raisins i split between my purse and my food drawer (yeah, i said it) at work in case of a snack attack.



my produce section (check out g. garvin in the
back, who will be getting NO LOVE this week):
















so, this morning, all i had to prepare was my green smoothie. i had planned on using some super-ripe bananas i had in order to use them before they went bad. i was too late. and the bananas i just bought from the farmers' market aren't ripe enough yet, so i had to freestyle. i made the apple-kale combination (1 apple, 1 1/2 kale leaves, juice from 1/4 of a lemon, 1 c. water). the original recipe yields about 3-4 servings, so again, i was improvising. all in all, it turned out pretty tasty. granted, i'm chewing some of it, so i'll surely focus more energy on the BLEND aspect for tomorrow's smoothie. but it tastes good, and i feel healthy and satisfied. i'll check in throughout the day, and the girls (and boy; a brothergartener has joined raw week) may check in with their own updates. feel free to join us! you know you want to...



11:59am: check out beverly's produce shot. she even picked up a food dehydrator:

2:25pm: i had a 1pm dentist appointment, so to avoid showing up with raisins in my teeth, i didn't have a snack. talk about starving! i was SO hungry when i got back to work. i sprinkled some raisins on my beautiful salad, and it was deeeeeeeeeelish. and it just hit me...i don't know what's for dinner.

8:03pm: i'm exhausted. my day was so hectic that i have no way of knowing whether i'm drained because of raw week or because of all the running around i had to do.

perhaps this ordeal would be better illustrated on twitter, as by the time i got home to blog, i had been through a million different emotions surrounding this process. i experienced about an hour of CRAZY TIME in which i nodded off during a work-related meeting, almost had an internal melt-down about what i was going to prepare for dinner, and simultaneously imagined devouring a frozen cheese pizza. this is gonna be an interesting week.

Countdown to Raw Week...

friday and saturday, we all did our shopping for what one girlfriend has coined "raw week." once i got over my initial anxiety from the sheer intensity of the cramped local farmers' market, i actually had a good time picking through fresh produce and deciding what i would be eating for the week. i felt all metro-chic.

as a guide, i used a guide from kaia foods with simple raw recipes for beginners. tonight, i'll make creamy avocado dressing/dip for my salad and celery snack tomorrow. my first green smoothie will involve bananas since i have some really ripe ones i purchased before the farmer's market trip. i need to use those ASAP. i'm thinking bananas, strawberries, and kale. yummmmmm.

today for lunch, i had a pb&j with potato chips and light soy milk. i was really craving that. of all the things i might have before i'm restricted to raw food, lol. i haven't yet decided what's for dinner. but i'm gonna make it good.

see you tomorrow, sistergarteners!

Raw Desire

so, i have these girlfriends. we're like the typical friend group of 4 women of varying interests and personalities, only better. think "sex in the city" meets "girfriends" meets "a different world." no, "a different world" didn't focus on a specific group of archetypal women, but we met at a historically black college/university (hbcu), so i take the liberty of throwing that in the mix. and long before social networks started blasting the net with those "which [fill in the show] character are you?" quizzes, we were discussing that very (deep and poignant) topic in our dorm rooms. i'm a little bit carrie bradshaw and a lot lynn searcy. but i digress.

these "girls," as i suspect i will call them when we're in our 90s, are my sisters. i don't need to qualify that at all. they just are. and we tend to try new things together. that leads me to our latest venture: the raw food lifestyle (i'm avoiding the word "diet" because it is indeed more about lifestyle and habit changes rather than some sort of fad diet).

i would link you to info on raw foods, but i haven't yet decided what source, if any, is going to be my end-all, be-all go-to for raw food info. so i'll just recommend that you google "raw food" if you're not familiar. you'll find plenty. essentially, it's the practice of eating raw fruit, vegetables, beans, and nuts in an effort to get the most nutrients out of these foods as possible. the theory is that cooking these foods removes some of the most nutritious aspects of them. this also means processed foods like dairy (and soy?) are excluded. as you see, i'm not an expert. but we're gonna try it. for a week at first, and then maybe longer depending on how well it goes.

we're all participating for varying reasons. i mainly want to open myself to the experience and to participate in a cleanse of sorts. i'm not one for deprivation, but i do enjoy the self-discovery that takes place when i force myself to examine the things i do in auto-pilot. for instance, "why do i eat so much cheese?!?" lol...cheese is great, but i'm sure after a week without it, i'll have a better appreciation for all the things i can eat without it, not to mention how much lighter and healthier i'll feel.

so, sistergarten friends, starting monday, i'll be charting our progress right here in the sistergarten! wish us luck! and feel free to join us or post tips, and past experiences!

be. fly.

rhythm