Since I was a child I always passed up the mushy carrots, brocs and green beans and insisted my veggies be raw. My mother encouraged this way of eating and always had fresh fruit or "God's candy", on hand. I never cared much for meat and would simply choke it down because it was healthy for me (I have learned since then). Therefore, going raw doesn't seem like a big deal....huh. Except that I have also always been a bread junkie. I have been trying to eat more raw but have found that I have been sneaking in the cracker, bread and eating WAY too many nuts. So the plan is this:

Basically 80-10-10 without having read the book but researching on Google. I have noticed for the most part people are fruitarians...no problemo. So, I will eat fruits and veggies. My nutritional plan will be further supplemented by green smoothies (The Green Life by Victoria Boutenko is ver good). I will allow myself nuts once a week and one avo a week. I am breastfeeding a 10 month old who nurses 6-7 times a day.
If you happen upon my food diary please, please, please feel free to add ways that I could do better. Supplements are being used: complete vitamin, Bs, calcium and magnesium.

I think you should consider adding a little more fat to your diet, since you are nursing. I wouldn't want to jeopardize my milk supply. At least research it. Other than that, I think it looks great! Good luck.

thanks for the advice Sundancer! I am tempted to agree with you after my first full day of raw I found that my body was really craving something fatty. By evening I had a handful of almonds and felt much better. Day one was successful and looked something like this:

3 bananas
3 apples
3/4 cups of strawberries
1/2 cup mango
ginger
1 container of baby romaine
1 english cucumber
carrots
1/2 cup of almond milk
handful of almonds

I feel good, somewhat tired and a little cold, but that could be because of the cruddy weather we are experiencing in Vancouver.

hi leaf eater,

i eat about 3 times that much and not im nursing.
feel free to enjoy more fruit and leafs!!!

fruitgirl

thanks fruit girl! I had a feeling I wasn't eating enough and today was not any better because tomorrow is grocery day. I'm still trying to figure out how much I need for the week and am realizing that the purchase of a small farm would be a good investment! on todays menu:

parsley smoothie (can you say DISGUSTING!!) I guess my body is really not needing whatever parsley has to offer because I found it absolutely horrific.

broc/celery/chard/kale smoothie again not one of my better smoothie experiences, I really did not feel like going to the store (again!!) for more greens and just emptied my fridge.

3 bananas
2 apples
1 cup of grapes
1/2 cup strawberries
1 cup of cherries
a handful of nuts
celery

geez...I'm really not doing very well.....it's funny, I have a history of being a binge eater and now, being on a raw diet, I can't get enough in me...pigs really can fly!
On the detox note, I am experiencing some symptoms,like the runs and some serious PMS grade grouchiness. I am still a little sluggish yet really alert. Sluggishness may be due to not enough calories.
On the nursing side, my supply seems unaffected, in saying this, my daughter dropped a feeding today (I am happy about this because I will be returning to work in the fall).

Hey Leafeater!
I think you are doing well -- this is definitely a trial and error thing! I like to mix fruit with my kale in my smoothies and have one pretty much every morning consisting of: 2 cups chopped kale (or other greens, but I like kale best), 1-2T. ground flax seeds, and about three cups of whatever fruit I have in the house. I add water for consistency, and I go in that order, blending the kale with a little water first, adding the ground flax, blend, then the fruit, so the kale gets the most blending. If the smoothie isn't sweet enough for whatever mood I'm in, I add a little raw agave, and if I'm PMSing, I add raw cacao. This smoothie takes me through anything up until the middle of the afternoon. Oh yeah, and we do have a small "farm" in our yard -- we are systematically ripping out most of the grass in our quarter acre yard and replacing it with gardens.

thanks for the encouragement sundancer! I've tried the kale and am not a big fan of its taste, I do add a couple of leafs into my smoothies every second day. I REALLY dig spinach smoothies, I could literally live off them.

So anyhoo, the pigs crashed (but did not burn, because this would mean finality to my rawness). I guess not getting enough calories made me so hungry I could not control myself (the binger in me). I ended up eating 4 (yes 4!) chocolate bars (they were my husbands...I will have to get him to put his junk in the car). I made a promise to myself not to allow my poor choices to dictate the rest of my days, this being said I am moving on, making today a better day. My strategy is to focus on eating more so that I'm not so hungry.
I have added flax seed and flax seed oil to my smoothies (thanks for the idea sundancer) and have decided to eat as much fruit and veegies as I want.

apart from the chocolate bars my day was good, I did not eat as much because obvioulsy I was purdy full.




Jenn

Leaf eater, I live in the pacific northwest and have been discovering many wild foods, I have stinging nettles growing in my back yard and they are full of protien and nutrients. The wild foods are free for the pickin and filling. I suggest finding someone who can point out what is good to eat and how to pick wild foods. I am finding out that the wild foods tend to have more nutrients than our grocery store produce.
I love spinach smoothies with strawberries and bananas. yum
I have a tasty reciepe for you and very simple. I take a couple of tablespoons of flax seeds and grind them in a coffee grinder and take some apple and blend that so its like applesauce then I mix both together, you can add cinnamon or maple syrup, you can flatten them out and dehydrate it or just eat it like oatmeal. it is very tasty and flax has callories. I usually get loose bowels when I eat flax oil.
Best of luck
Pam

You're welcome!!! :}
Sundancer

thanks for the advice Pam! I've been curiously looking at the different weeds wondering if they are edible or not. Do you just wash and eat the stinging nettle or do you prepare it in some way? It's funny, ever since I started the green smoothies I have been craving them more and more....lately I've had a hankering to eat flowers...I NEVER thought I'd have a hankering for flowers (and have no idea which ones I could eat...) I think I'll see if I can find any books in the library on edible wild plants....thanks again!
Yesterday was good...very good. I had a couple of green smoothies and lots of fruits and veggies. I did have some raw fish (I am vegan most of the time but 3-4 times a year I really want fish) which was sooooooo tasty! It was my daughter's christening and we had a huge platter of sushi so it went really well for my raw diet. The fish really filled me up, but by evening I had made my daughters favorite food, sunflower seed "hummus" so I partook in its yumminess.

how do you make sunflower humous? One thing about eating flowers is it has pollen in it and pollen has so many nutrients kind of like eating bee pollen. Nastursiums are very spicy tasting and there is a viola I believe you can eat, it is kind of mild tasting. I was surprised at what a power punch stinging nettles were. I found a couple of u-tube shows on eating nettles and read some things on line, there is so much information available. I can't wait till I get a edible weed book though. What I did with the nettles was I put them in my smoothies like I do with greens, when the nettles are blended they don't sting. You can roll a rolling pin over them to take care of the stinger. I need to find some other weeds to eat though. I look at my yard in a whole different perspective now.

to make the sunflower hummus I just use sunflower seeds that have been soaked for 24 hours instead of garbanzos. Last night I added some zuchinni and it was very yummy. When I cook I don't really measure but here's what's in it (approximate measurements):

1 cup of dry sunflower seeds that I soak
2-3 garlic cloves (depending on how you like it)
juice from one lemon
pinch of salt
enough water to make it a "dipping" consistency-start with less and add if you need to.


I imagine that you could add sundried tomatoes, zuchinni, carrots....maybe even basil?

eeeeew, I didn't know what stinging nettle was until Pam mentioned that she put it in her smoothies which neutralizes the stingers....I know that weed, I HATED when I accidentally stepped on those as a kid. OUCH! I did google it and the Canadian government warns not to ingest if breastfeeding....I don't mind if I got a little sick from it...but not babushka...I'll wait until she's weaned for experimenting.

so...I'm thinking I should re-title this thread to the 30 day journey towards 100% raw....this hasn't been as easy as I forecasted. Perhaps it is due to my own eating issues or maybe it's like this for everybody. Yesterday started off stellar. I ate fruit to my hearts content and had two green smoothies. However, by evening I ended up eating a big bowl of tortellini that I had made for my family. I wasn't even that hungry. This really truly sucks. I do not want to force my lifestyle on my family, they can learn from my example, however I am finding it difficult not to eat cooked foods that I have prepared for them. Today I am soooo bloated and crappy feeling. I'm not hungry at all. I guess I'll have to come up with some strategies to overcome this issue...

I am so sorry about suggesting eating the nettles, I wonder why they are nnot good for breastfeeding though. I was just thinking they were so nutricious but they do tend to make you stay awake if you eat to much. I have to cook for my family, I try not to cook things that would tempt me, like spagetti or lasagnia.
Best of luck
Pam

Hey Leafeater -- I still think you're doing well on this "journey towards 100% raw", and if you use how you feel after eating tortellini as a lesson in how you want (or don't) to feel, then I think you'll be even more successful in the long run. I go through that still, but now it's to a lesser degree, because I've gotten better at 1)stopping myself from eating whatever, and 2) choosing less toxic foods when I do "blow it" -- I'm forgetting what french fries taste like!

thanks for the encouragement sundancer! AFter my blown day I had a really good day, I guess because I was really, truly not hungry and felt terrible. Today has been back to normal, I'm eating lots of fruit and have had one green smoothie. I felt so nasty after my tortellini fiasco I think I may have learned my lesson! Hopefully it will not be forgotten!

oh Pampam, don't worry about it! I am looking forawrd to trying the nettles next summer! I was walking y my neighbour's house the other day and was practically salivating at all the dandelion leaves she had in her yard! And to think I used to curse my neighbours for not taking care of their lawns! Now I can benefit from them teeheee!
Rawbc will be organizing a wild edible walk to teach the beginner greeners what to eat and what to stay away from, I'm hoping to attend the walk, it should be quite interesting!
Yesterday was such a great day, it was my birthday and my husband was not sure if he should buy a cake. I told him to get a small one so that we could have the cake ceremony for our four year old son (anyone with kids knows how important the cake/song/blowing of the candles are-regardless of whose birthday it is.) I did not partake in the eatin gof it but enjoyed a yummy crunchy apple instead.

Jenn

Happy birthday Leafeater! You share a birthday with my oldest grandson, who just turned 1! Good job not eating the cake!

THanks sundancer! I've been away camping for the last bit. It has been a tradition to be yummy goodies such as candy and chips on camping trips. I found a great recipe that allowed me to indulge:

1 cup of figs or raisins
1 cup of your choice of nuts
a little oil if you want

grind up the figs, grind up the nuts and mix together reserving some of the nut dust. roll into marble size balls, coat with nut dust and enjoy! the only problem is that they are soooo yummy!

ew, durians. gross.