Days 5 and 6 of 30-Day Raw Challenge

Still maintaining momentum. Feeling great.

Started Day 5 off with a full blender of Green Chocomacananner Smoothie. Then was busy all day -- caught in 4-hour long job interview (whew!) -- and didn't eat much. Stopped at a Salvadorean restaurant on my way home from the interview and snacked off one of their "Desayuno Tipico" breakfast plates, a couple huevos rancheros, some kind of round filled bread ("pupusa"?), a piece of queso blanco. Ordered a cafe con leche but did not drink it. Did indulge in a small bit of flan... heh.

Today, Day 6, I made had some Macadamia-Hempseed Fruit Topping (with organic almond extract instead of vanilla) over fresh strawberries & with fresh sunflower seed milk. Gave some in a cup to my youngest (a high school senior) who really liked it. "Any more?" Nope... mumma ate it all. :-D

Also had half a piece of the all-organic custardy french toast I made for the kids, but honestly... I was sated by my own meal. For late lunch, I made a Creamy Pink Smoothie, and later had a bit of Warm Raw Cocoa. And I had a few bites of the jasmine rice and chicken breasts I made for my boyz for their supper. The day's not out yet, but will probly make another smoothie before heading out for some dancing.

Am experimenting with two recipes for raw crisps and crackers. They're in the dehydrator right now... hopin' at least one of them is a keeper! Will report tomorrow...

Still in search of tasty "live" Bread & Crackers...

Haven't located any buckwheat groats as yet locally. May just need to order them online. In the meantime, am gonna see what I can come up with using what I've got on hand at the moment.

I love homemade bread. It may be that I won't find a "raw" bread that does the trick to my taste, in which case, c'est la vie. I find baking bread from scratch magical. Now that is a living thing, when you've got the dough under your hands and you can feel it springing to life, warming & plumping & smoothing.

But in the spirit of exploring "rawness", I had some flaxseed crackers with my soup at dinner this evening. Extremely flavorful "Matter of Flax", Greek-flavored crackers... with visible bits of black olives in them, bits of red & green pepper, tomatoes, carrots, garlic... very nice.

The thing is, I abhor the taste of flax. Just grosses me out. Can't get used to it. Like the taste of wheatgrass juice. Just not for me. And without flax, making breads & crackers is a tricky business, because soaked flax seed is the "binder" in the raw realm, like eggs are in the baked world.

Must explore other binding options... I've got a dehydrator just itchin' to make full-flavored sprouted grain breads & crackers. Maybe the raw food muse will visit me in my sleep with some yummy inspiration.

Cardio Barre arrived!

I've wanted my very own barre for almost 20 years... since being introduced to Callanetics in the late 80s. Can't believe I've actually got one set up at home, now... Very, very pleased.

The barre actually arrived a few days ago, but one connector was defective so I couldn't set it up. Called up Cardio Barre, and they very sweetly Fed-Exed a replacement part to me, which arrived today! In the meantime, I did the Cardio Barre workout three times (using a chair for support), so when the I finally assembled the barre today I just put on some great workout music and gave it a whirl to see what all I could do with it.

I generally use DVDs to help me maintain momentum and to give me ideas, but I'm far more comfortable coming up with my own workouts geared towards what I can feel my body needs in the moment. I must've spent two hours at my barre today... standing, kneeling, sitting next to it... lying under it... doing leg exercises, seat-work, ab-work, upper-body stretching... you name it! I absolutely loved it.

I've got a Fluidity Bar coming soon -- am looking forward to that, because it's much heavier and will allow me to use my body weight to create resistance and get into some positions I can't manage with a lightweight free-standing barre. But the Cardio Barre is gonna see a lotta sweat... :)

It weighs only 11 pounds, is 4-1/2 feet long, a nice shiny black, assembles in less than 60 seconds, comes in a sexy black carrying bag, and easily moves where I want it throughout my workout, but provides all the support I need for basic barre work. Cost $120 total, including S&H, and came with the DVD and some hand weights. Money well-spent, I say.

Day 4 of 30-Day Raw Challenge

Stayed with the live foods all day yesterday (Day 3), finishing up with a comfy cooked meal in front of a good movie (Mansfield Park):

Started day with fresh juice from 2 Valencia oranges, followed by Sesame Ezekiel Toast with Raw Coconut Oil and Raw Honey. Later I had a cappuccino from Starbucks while I waited at the Apple store to take my sick iPod in for a checkup. Alas, did not enjoy the cappo at all... felt repulsed by the milk, which seems to happen when I jack up the live foods.

The rest of the afternoon I sipped a blenderful of Pink Smoothie (with Strawberry-Red Grape-Tomato) and had a couple bowls of Live Shitake-Miso Soup. Also had a couple Raw Cashew-Pumpkin Seed "Pop-ems"... honey-nut treats I just don't know what to name. "Pop-em" is not cutting it... I need inspiration. But they sure are good. Way better than any of those date-almond nut balls I've had so many places. Am going to have to make a large batch of those things tomorrow. YUM.

For dinner, made some tortellini for the kids, with fresh tomato sauce, and had a bowl of that with a small glass of shiraz.

Today, Day 4, started straightaway with an unusual craving for eggs. I'd just picked up some gorgeous gigantic eggs from a local farmer, so I cooked a few up in some olive oil & enjoyed them with Ezekiel bread and a long espresso. It was all live the rest of the day, save for a bit of chocolate at the end of it all.

Made a nice Live Shitake Soup with Butternut Squash, Red Pepper, and Hempseed. Comforting and very filling... felt absolutely stuffed afterwards, and has lasted all evening.

Altogether, am pleased with how things have gone so far...

Day 3 of 30-Day Raw Challenge

Skin beginning to develop that inexplicable softness that comes with eating high-raw. It always amazes me how quickly that emerges. The skin is truly a barometer for what's going on within one's body.

So, today, I'm feeling completely clear-headed, energetic, focused, ambitious, very "alive", and with normal hunger. Awesome.

Yesterday (Day 2) was easy & enjoyable. Enjoyed some non-raw bits & pieces in the evening, but for the most part I'm craving live food and eating lots of it. Most of the day was spent consuming a large Chocomaca Hempseed Shake and a bowl of Coconut-Grape Soup with Strawberries and Macadamia Nuts, with leftover soup in a glass like a smoothie. I was TOTALLY fired up by the coconut... WOW. That stuff is magical. Lots of productivity, with energy to spare.

In the evening, I had a small toasted ciabatta sandwich with turkey, arthichoke, and red pepper. And I closed out the day with a Vanilla-Peach martini made with organic Italian peach nectar and vanilla vodka.

Day 2 of 30-Day Raw Challenge

Made it through very easily yesterday at nearly 100% live foods.

What I ate:

Chocomacananner Sprouted Cereal Shake
Vanilla Macadamia-Hempseed Topping over Strawberries
Live Butternut Squash Soup w/ Avocado and Pistachios
Most of a small slice of Sicilian pizza

Unexpectedly went out to dinner with friend in the evening, and thus grabbed the slice. Light bread, small bit of sauce & cheese... exactly the sort of bready thing I crave on a daily basis when I'm high-raw. Usually a bit of toasted Ezekiel bread helps out, because of its rich nutty-meaty flavor & texture.

Am looking for buckwheat groats right now so I can sprout them & try to make some live buckwheat crackers, which I can eat with avocado/sprout spreads & savory pates made from the leftovers of the morning's nut milk. But... need to nail down the right bread or cracker recipe for that to work.

I slept perfectly-wonderfully-peacefully last night. Feel clear-headed, energized, and very motivated today. Started things off with a Chocomaca Hempseed Shake, and making an espresso now at 11am.

(Edited to add: Only got a few sips into the espresso before dumped into the sink. Started to catch in my throat & not wanna go down. Unthinkable... but true.)

In search of great live Bread and Crackers...

I'm on a mission to create tasty live bread & crackers at home with my dehydrator... it's the one missing piece that drives me crazy when I try to go full-out 100% raw. I just need bread-y things, and crunchy things to scoop up dips & such.

Have pulled out one of my live food books for some recipe ideas. Nothing I've ever tried has ever.really.hit.the.spot... but I do believe it must be possible

Day 1 of 30-Day Raw Challenge

Stared things off with a handful of raw cashews and a Chocomacananner Sprouted Cereal shake . With a long espresso on the side.

Not giving up coffee unless it gives me up... as it has done before when I've gone high raw. Those who know me know that when it comes to coffee, I'm all about the flavor, not the caffeine. I don't drink it to "wake up" or for energy -- I just think a well-brewed cup of espresso, macchiato, or cappuccino is one of my favorite taste pleasures on the planet. It feels good in my body and I suffer from no ill effects if I don't partake.

But I seem to lose the desire for coffee the more I consume live foods so... am paying it no mind until that happens. A girl's gotta have some vices...

Actually, I don't think of my enjoyment of coffee as a vice. So I better start coming up with some other ones. Heh.

Fresh Juice: Carrot-Cuke-Celery-Red Grape-Kale

6 long carrots
5 ribs celery
1 cuke (peeled only cuz non-organic)
large bunch red grapes, taken off stem
3-4 leaves kale

this filled a 1-1/2 quart pitcher... sipped from a.m. til mid p.m.
sweet, refreshing, enlivening... simple

Navitas products

I have been very impressed with the quality of products I've sampled from a company called Navitas. They have the best raw cacao nibs & cocoa powder I've tried so far... absolutely delicious, and they feel great in my body. And the incan goldenberries are like nature's sour candy... so perky & full-flavored!

I've got their raw maca powder (am still endeavoring to develop some recipes that I really like using maca...).

And dear Edie, the owner of my local health food store, who is as much into raw & live foods as I am, just introduced me to the Navitas "3 Berry-Cacao Nibs-Cashews" TRAIL POWER mix, which is delicious. Made with the nibs & cashews along with gojis, incan berries, and mulberries.

Came across this video of Zach Adelman of Navitas, discussing some of their products:

12-week fitness program, 30-day raw challenge

I launched a personal 12-week fitness program this past Monday, Oct. 1st, and I decided today that I'm going to start a 30-day raw challenge for myself this coming Monday the 8th, as well.

I first began experimenting with a high raw lifestyle in April 2005, with amazing results, and now I feel ready to bring that initial shift into a new lifestyle & physique to its final stage, a new beginning in itself. Whereas previously I went from a size 16/18 to a 6 in seven months, and then continued to refine my fitness at that level, now I desire to transform my physique into the lean, beautiful, and highly functional shape of a dancer. Honestly, it's the functionality that I need... I absolutely require a stronger center in order to take my dancing to the next level, and there's a lot that goes into allowing that to happen. Certainly, it involves far more than working on one's abs...

I discovered ballroom dancing about 5 months into my raw experience. I eventually started studying International Standard ballroom with a private instructor, with the intention of competing, and January of this year (2007) I started competing with my instructor at a beginning level ("full bronze"). I participated in three competitions this year, in January, April, and July, and one showcase performance in June.

My 12-week fitness program, which includes the use of a ballet barre to work out using Super Callanetics (which I've used with repeat notable success since the late 80s), Cardio Barre, the Lotte Berk Method, the Bar Method, and the Fluidity Bar program (all of those being new to my experience).

Add to that some power-walking with weights, and DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) workouts at home, and I should have my hands full for the next 11+ weeks.

Over the last few months I have definitely increased my raw & live foods with all sorts of superfoods on a regular basis, but I was so inspired today by the film project at http://www.rawfor30days.com/view.html that I decided I was up for a raw personal challenge myself.

So, starting Monday, I'll be shooting for a 100% live & raw foods consumption every day, and if I hit a level of 90-95%, I'll be ecstatic!

I'm already very acclimated to the culture of raw. My kitchen is extremely different than it was two years ago... my shopping habits have continued to simplify, my cupboards are minimally stocked, my fridge relatively simple, filled with fresh foods I generally purchase every few days. I've got great goji berries, incan berries, raw cacao nibs & cocoa powder, raw maca & carob powders, great coconut oil, awesome green powder in the fridge, my beloved Himalayan ("himmy") salt on hand, great raw olives, a steady stream of varied raw nuts into the house... Honestely, it just blows my mind how much great food is at hand at this juncture in history.

So... the adventure continues. My objective: Maximal -- or rather, let's say unprecedented -- youthfulness, energy, vitality, physical functionality, strength, flexibility, grace, joy, and connectedness. I'm already doin' pretty well on this account for a 43-yr-old single mum. Let's see how much more one can push the envelope of what's possible...

Looking forward to seeing what emerges...

Back in the saddle, again...

Started back with a high-raw diet about a month ago, after a couple years of varying degrees of "rawness", but with a constant trend of of live green smoothies.

I'd lost the kind of inner "high" that comes from being very high raw, tho, and my skin had lost that distinctive glow & smoothness. I wanted to feel that release and openness in my muscles I remember feeling, as if my cells could breathe more and the sinew in my body stretch more. Since discovering the power of eating live foods, I've become a dancer, training for ballroom competitions, and I wanted more energy & more vitality, more flexibility and tone... So I headed back to the old ways.

And it feels so great! Like being home again.

One month in, and my skin is deep into showing improvement -- it's getting that "sproingier" feeling again, and that sleek shiny luminous quality I now associate with eating lots of live foods.

With my dancing, I definitely feel more athletic, and have been recovering some abilities I haven't had in me since the early 90s. So... I'd consider that a great start. Let the momentum build...

A new routine that's working

Tomorrow makes 8 weeks raw, about 90-100% overall. Have been at 100% lately.

When I first started this, I thought I'd be making a lot more complicated recipes involved nuts and sprouted seeds, but I'm finding that simple works best for me most of the time. I bought a 9-sheet Excalibur dehydrator, and made a few good things with it, but haven't used it for a couple weeks.

Have found a general routine of starting out the day with a blended papaya/berry smoothie. Raspberries are my first choice, because they have such a great ZING that offsets the papaya-ness, and they turn the smoothie a deep FUSCHIA! And I love my fuschia food! But blueberries, strawberries, mixed berries... or peaches & bananas... they also work nicely as backups, or for variety! I'll prepare a blender full and pour it all out into a couple bottles to take to work, adding some ice cubes to keep it cool.

I found some nifty ice trays at Bed, Bath, & Beyond -- they are in the shape of sticks, so they can be added easily to water bottles on-the-go! I have only two -- I plan on getting more because they are incredibly handy, and they get used up very quickly.

Before I leave for work, I also make some kind of green smoothie, and I do the same thing, putting them in bottles with ice. At work, when I've finished the fruit, I switch to the greens. If I haven't finished them by lunch, I'll sip some with my meal.

I tend to go in phases with the green smoothies -- it all depends on what I'm stocked with. I might do a salad/soup theme one week, with lots of spinach, broccoli, radish, & red pepper, maybe spice it up with jalapeno or ginger. I add hemp seeds or pine nuts, and some hemp oil or olive oil, and always a good dose of Himalayan salt & raw apple cider vinegar. Lately -- having gotten a large jar of NFL's amazing virgin coconut oil -- I'm putting a good dose of that. These kinds of smoothies are like drinking creamy veggie soups! It always amazes me how beautiful they, an almost luminous neon spring-green!

But then I'll go on a jag where I'm doing the chocomacaverde thing... and what-ho! I'll have to put a recipe up for that. Spinach or simple baby romaine (much darker than the mature stuff!), with ground raw cacao, ground raw carob, some maca powder, coconut oil, Himalayan salt, and either a banana or two or a dash of agave syrup. Plus some hemp seeds or pine nuts for body and all their nutritional goodness. AWEsome!

In the afternoon, I'll have some fruit (I usually keep 2-4 oranges or bananas in my bag when I'm not at home). Or, if I need something more substantial, I'll have some nuts, chopped up and mixed with some agave or honey and a bit of almond butter. Don't need a lot of this at once... just a bit. It's delicious & filling!

For supper, I've been doing a parsley/coconut soup over fresh fruit. So filling, and my body just seems to sing for the rest of the day!

I had stopped eating raw oatmeal for weeks, but am going to bring it back in. I absolutely love it but, also, its high silicon content is great for healthy hair, bones, and skin, and for collagen repair & development! Here's a good link on silicon:

http://www.pdrhealth.com/drug_info/nmdrugprofiles/nutsupdrugs/sil_0235.shtml

This week, I'll start either taking the oatmeal with me to work for lunch, or I'll have it in the evening for supper. I find a nice big bowl of soaked steel-cut oats, covered in creamy fresh-made nut milk, and topped with various fresh & dried fruits and nuts, is very grounding. After that, I don't need to think about food for awhile. And that's a good thing.

Gotta luv it.

(check out the recipe section for everything listed above)

Back on the scene!

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.

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...

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!