Sunday, June 6, 2010

It's all about the Raw-riety

Today is Day 7 on the Raw Food diet and I have to say it's been quite a week - full of ups and downs. The first 4 days were amazing; I felt great and had so much energy, never felt tired or exhausted and I was down 4 pounds (10 more to go to be pre-baby weight). I had a green smoothie every day for breakfast and most days for dinner or a snack. In between I snacked on fruits and veggies, such as berries, apples, carrots and celery and for lunch, I would eat a salad with EVOO and some kind of citrus, like lime or lemon. (All I have to say is thank goodness EVOO is considered raw because you can do so much with it!) But by Friday, I was bored. I had 2 raw uncook books that I had ordered from Amazon but I hadn’t had time to really make a trip to Whole Foods or prepare anything in it. So when Travis and I had the afternoon off on Friday, I didn’t even bother asking him where he wanted to go for lunch; I told him “Let’s go to Green; I need to eat something besides a salad.” Green has an amazingly good raw wrap with some kind of pecan hummus that is so good. Even if you aren’t a raw foodie, it’s worth a try.

Saturday morning, I ran 4 miles and didn’t get home fast enough afterwards to have my green smoothie for breakfast (long story that involves attempting to rescue a dog that didn’t want to be rescued). As a result, I wasn’t exactly ravishing but I could tell my body needed something and when I did finally have my green smoothie, it didn’t satisfy me the way it usually does. I ate a berry salad for lunch and snacked on some veggies and olives at a pool party later that day but I still didn’t feel as great as I did all the other days. Around 6 pm, I was starving and usually by this time, we are at a place like Bigz enjoying some portabella burgers, a pitcher of beer and Elisabeth playing on the lawn with the other kids. So I said screw it, let’s go, which we did… and so did my raw diet.

As soon as I had that burger, I felt guilty; like I had failed, and gave into a moment of weakness that could’ve been avoided with a little better planning. So this week, I have a raw strategy. I made a calendar with every meal I’ll be having this week, made a list and went to Whole Foods AND Central Market to make sure I had everything (although I inevitably forgot a few things on my list; but hey, that’s what happens when you go with your 11.5 month old baby). Here are a few things on the menu this week:

Veggie Sandwich
Sweet Corn Chowder
Meditteranean wrap with red pepper hummus (bean free)
Fruit Parfait

These are all from the recipe book, Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen. All her recipes are so easy and so far… delicious. Plus, she herself lost 15 pounds in the first month of going raw (very motivating for me since that's exactly what I need to lose to be back to pre-baby weight). I already made her Black Sesame Sunflower Bread and her Taco Nut Meat, both of which were very tasty. I'll keep you posted on how the dishes above fair. And I'll also be researching what is best to eat pre and post run on a raw food diet. Stay tuned my friends.

3 comments:

gmontalvo13 said...

i love green's raw wrap! my favorite is the quinoa burrito- but that's probably not raw...

i'm so glad that you're doing this challenge, hopefully you will motivate me to do the same :)

Unknown said...

So curious to hear more about how you "bake" raw bread. I might need a recipe to try myself.

Isabel North said...

Grace - I love hte quinoa burrito too! But no, it's not raw. It is vegan though :) And that is actually what Travis had when we lunched there Friday.

Waspy - it's actually dried, not baked... in a dehydrator. It takes 4 hours but it's super easy as long as you have the time