FINALLY... resolved a technical difficulty that kept me from posting after day one!
Am in week 7, now. Lost 15 pounds in the first five weeks. I don't think I broke a sweat once. And I ate as much as wanted at all times. When I think how hard I worked out over the past few years, and went hungry so very often, and could never lose any weight... and then it just falls off like this on the raw foods? What will happen when the workouts intensify? My energy has been going through the roof -- on my daily walks, I can't hold myself back from running any longer, which really starts to change the definition in my legs and tuckus. Gotta luv it.
Am finding some routine as far as food intake, but also am still in pursuit of a decent sandwich wrap other than nori. That would be an enormous help... being able to grab something quick & substantial for on-the-go & for work. I've tried making tortillas and chips using ground flax seed as a binding agent, but I find the flavor of ground flax repulsivo. It's not rancid or bitter... it's something else, and I simply can't stomach it, can't get it down. Am not using corn, as Gabriel Cousens recommends against its usage, along with cashews, oats, and mushrooms, all of which I still have stocked but will likely not replenish when they are out (these foods contribute mycotoxins to one's bloodstream -- check out his book Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine for details). I'm thinking a tortilla made with carrot pulp and soaked pecans might work... it's having a binding agent to hold it all together that's the trick. Will experiment on this one & report all positive findings!
Am still frequently doing papaya smoothies with raspberries -- love to blend them up with a little water, pour everything into two re-used Glaceau VitaminWater bottles, and take to work. They last until mid-morning, after which I switch to my greens smoothies, bottled similarly. Last week, I spent most of the week primarily taking blended fruit & veg, and my skin is really showing it! For nearly ten years, I've tried everything I can think of -- including zillions of products, facials, and masks -- to clear the pores on my nose, which seemed to remain bumpy and darkish, no matter what I did. And now... smooth as a baby's behind and much, much less visible! After 1-2 weeks on these blended drinks? This cure for skin challenges should be shouted from the rooftops... it's amazing!
As far as the greens, I started with salad-type blends of veggies: baby greens, kale, chard, radishes, red peppers, cukes, sometimes some jalapeno and/or onions (spring or red). I'd add some Himalayan crystal salt, a dash of raw apple cider vinegar (I use Braggs) or lemon, and some kind of oil -- hemp, olive, or coconut (which breaks into tiny particles that make the drink taste creamy).
But I have since discovered a couple things that are really turning me on: 1) spinach completely breaks down into a delicately flavored, smooth emulsified drink when it's blended, and 2) spinach & raw cacao go together very nicely. The potential here is awesome... greens AND chocolate in the same beverage? Add some raw maca powder, a couple soaked dates, and a dash of Himalayan salt, and I'll have a Chocomacaverde Extravaganza!
I am salivating at the thought. What a weirdo.
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Sunday, May 01, 2005
The Planet's Greatest Coffee-Lover
My love affair with dark-roasted coffee began in high school, and over the years developed into what could only be called a passion. Truly, there is no greater lover of coffee anywhere on the planet. I'm not talking about being jacked up on caffeine and drinking massive quantities of black acid, and I've never been one for chemical-laden flavoured beans, like "creme brulee" and "raspberry hazelnut".
No, it's the dark, masterfully roasted beans in their simplest form that inspired my pursuit of the perfect brew, and which lured me every morning to the sensual ritual of grinding and steeping a substance, dark as soil, that intoxicated both my palate and my brain. Again, it's not the caffeine--I use very dark roasts, with much of the caffeine content burned off, and I drink primarily cafe americanos made from fine espresso beans with a much lower caffeine content than the beans used in mainstream brews. It's something else, perhaps a combination of aroma and polyphenols, perhaps other components in coffee I can't name, but the bitter, unctuous cup has always been magical for me. Never too sweet, sometimes black with cardamom and bit of greek masticha (a resin blended into a soft taffy), or perhaps the perfect Roman cappuccino... quality coffee has been one of my favorite pleasures on the planet.
Or rather, "was" because I stopped drinking it. I didn't intend to, not in the least. In fact, when I made the decision to go raw, even though none of the raw foodists I read drank the stuff, I stated my intention quite emphatically to myself: "I am not giving up my coffee." Raw is fine, but this pleasure is mine, I asserted.
But then, on the first day of going raw, I didn't even think of coffee until 12:30, and even then only because a friend of mine came by to share a customary cup. I made the coffee, and it was good, but something was missing...
The 2nd day, I didn't think of coffee until 2:30 in the afternoon. Again, I made some. But it didn't taste so magical. Each subsequent day, more of the day passed before I remembered: 4:30, 5:30, 6:30. I'd make the coffee, even trying to enhance it with the new exotic raw ingredients gathered on my counter--maca powder, ground raw chocolate, agave nectar--but the drink was definitely losing its appeal.
Finally, when it wasn't until 7 pm that I remembered about my old friend, I realized that I simply didn't want it--the thought of coffee caught in my throat in a faint gag--and I gave it up. I haven't wanted it since, not for a moment. No headaches, no withdrawal...it just suddenly no longer intersected with my reality. I would make it in a heartbeat if I still wanted it, but the idea of coffee is now actually rather revolting.
How does the world's greatest coffee-lover spontaneously give up coffee, without wanting to? I have to attribute it to the power of going raw. I think that brewed coffee is probably a balance-point for cooked food for some people. All sorts of foods balance each other--sweet & salty, meats & desserts, alkaline & acid--and I think that suddenly removing the cooked element from my lifestyle also automatically removed my desire for the coffee.
My expensive espresso machine still sits on my kitchen counter--so I can make it for friends, the idea is--but I strongly suspect that before long it's going to get packed up to make way for a dehydrator. The raw lifestyle is more appliance-dependent than cooking, and space in my kitchen is at a premium, so why keep something around that I don't use? For the moment, it's a comfortable, familiar sight. But its value is already growing cobwebs in my memory.
All this validates something that has repeatedly proven true in my life: radical simplification quickly generates dramatic change. If simplifying the foods that I eat to their most natural state results in this ridiculously dramatic change, what else is going on that I haven't yet recognized, I wonder?
The adventure continues...
No, it's the dark, masterfully roasted beans in their simplest form that inspired my pursuit of the perfect brew, and which lured me every morning to the sensual ritual of grinding and steeping a substance, dark as soil, that intoxicated both my palate and my brain. Again, it's not the caffeine--I use very dark roasts, with much of the caffeine content burned off, and I drink primarily cafe americanos made from fine espresso beans with a much lower caffeine content than the beans used in mainstream brews. It's something else, perhaps a combination of aroma and polyphenols, perhaps other components in coffee I can't name, but the bitter, unctuous cup has always been magical for me. Never too sweet, sometimes black with cardamom and bit of greek masticha (a resin blended into a soft taffy), or perhaps the perfect Roman cappuccino... quality coffee has been one of my favorite pleasures on the planet.
Or rather, "was" because I stopped drinking it. I didn't intend to, not in the least. In fact, when I made the decision to go raw, even though none of the raw foodists I read drank the stuff, I stated my intention quite emphatically to myself: "I am not giving up my coffee." Raw is fine, but this pleasure is mine, I asserted.
But then, on the first day of going raw, I didn't even think of coffee until 12:30, and even then only because a friend of mine came by to share a customary cup. I made the coffee, and it was good, but something was missing...
The 2nd day, I didn't think of coffee until 2:30 in the afternoon. Again, I made some. But it didn't taste so magical. Each subsequent day, more of the day passed before I remembered: 4:30, 5:30, 6:30. I'd make the coffee, even trying to enhance it with the new exotic raw ingredients gathered on my counter--maca powder, ground raw chocolate, agave nectar--but the drink was definitely losing its appeal.
Finally, when it wasn't until 7 pm that I remembered about my old friend, I realized that I simply didn't want it--the thought of coffee caught in my throat in a faint gag--and I gave it up. I haven't wanted it since, not for a moment. No headaches, no withdrawal...it just suddenly no longer intersected with my reality. I would make it in a heartbeat if I still wanted it, but the idea of coffee is now actually rather revolting.
How does the world's greatest coffee-lover spontaneously give up coffee, without wanting to? I have to attribute it to the power of going raw. I think that brewed coffee is probably a balance-point for cooked food for some people. All sorts of foods balance each other--sweet & salty, meats & desserts, alkaline & acid--and I think that suddenly removing the cooked element from my lifestyle also automatically removed my desire for the coffee.
My expensive espresso machine still sits on my kitchen counter--so I can make it for friends, the idea is--but I strongly suspect that before long it's going to get packed up to make way for a dehydrator. The raw lifestyle is more appliance-dependent than cooking, and space in my kitchen is at a premium, so why keep something around that I don't use? For the moment, it's a comfortable, familiar sight. But its value is already growing cobwebs in my memory.
All this validates something that has repeatedly proven true in my life: radical simplification quickly generates dramatic change. If simplifying the foods that I eat to their most natural state results in this ridiculously dramatic change, what else is going on that I haven't yet recognized, I wonder?
The adventure continues...
To Resurrection!
What an auspicious and appropriate date to accidentally launch this site, when two ancient resurrection-celebrating holidays have converged, May Day & Greek Easter. Perfectly aligns with my experience so far of leaving the cooked life behind--I feel not only my body renewing itself, but my spirit as well. Skin, cells, heart, happiness... all glowing in a soft, quiet way. Live food is magic, true alchemy.
Tomorrow starts week 4 of this radical change, which started on April 11, 2005. I'm beginning to focus in on recipes to satisfy the emotional aspect of suddenly leaving behind, all at once, meat, fish, dairy, and cooking, certified organic though it might all have been. I'll be posting my favorites at my other blog, Bare-Naked Cuisine. Nothing there yet, but I'm sure within a month it'll be jammed with goodies.
Perhaps sometime in the future the simplest of raw diets will satisfy me, but for now this jaded foodie needs some new, taste-bud-mesmerizing favorites, and I also want to devise some recipes that will help me introduce my teen-age boys to raw eating. They're watching from the sidelines... curious. If I can satisfy my own rarified culinary hankerings, and those of my sub-eating, pepperoni-pizza-loving kids, then what's to stop the whole Western world from leaving the cooked life behind? The entire planet would resurrect in three days, truly.
So, to my Greek friends and family I say on this lovely Easter morning: Xristos Anesti, Alithos Anesti! Blessings to all, and may you have the best day of your life, today and every day!
Tomorrow starts week 4 of this radical change, which started on April 11, 2005. I'm beginning to focus in on recipes to satisfy the emotional aspect of suddenly leaving behind, all at once, meat, fish, dairy, and cooking, certified organic though it might all have been. I'll be posting my favorites at my other blog, Bare-Naked Cuisine. Nothing there yet, but I'm sure within a month it'll be jammed with goodies.
Perhaps sometime in the future the simplest of raw diets will satisfy me, but for now this jaded foodie needs some new, taste-bud-mesmerizing favorites, and I also want to devise some recipes that will help me introduce my teen-age boys to raw eating. They're watching from the sidelines... curious. If I can satisfy my own rarified culinary hankerings, and those of my sub-eating, pepperoni-pizza-loving kids, then what's to stop the whole Western world from leaving the cooked life behind? The entire planet would resurrect in three days, truly.
So, to my Greek friends and family I say on this lovely Easter morning: Xristos Anesti, Alithos Anesti! Blessings to all, and may you have the best day of your life, today and every day!
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