i'm pretty excited about keeping a journal in here now! where i live there arn't exactly many raw foodies or even people who know what that is. i am alone in my journey! but at the same time, there are thousands just like me out there, who have gone through the same things and think the same way, and i think its's so awesome.



i first went "raw" a few months ago after initally becoming a vegan. i couldn't believe i had never heard about it before! i wanted to be in synch with nature. but i didn't know very much about it and was going through detox really bad and i didn't even know what detox was so i went back to cooked (but still incorporating lots of raw) for awhile. until now !! a couple weeks ago i stated getting back into it and WOW. i find i have so much more willpower and not just that i think my body is a lot more accustomed to eating raw foods this time. i feel more whole and happy. i feel more patient and balanced. i've forgotten what it's like to be "tired" all the time and feel heavy. my skin looks so much better !!!

and i have so much fun preparing gourmet raw meals !! tonight i had a delicious vegetable soup (matt amsden recipe) and cauliflower/cashew nut "mashed potatos" and portobello mushroom gravey. my favorite is breakfast. the green smoothie !!! fresh squeezed orange juice, kale, 2 bananas, hemp seed, cacao nibs, goji berries, maca powder, spirulina, some blueberries, coconut oil, carob (i looove carob) andi think thats it !! its a lot of ingredients but it makes me fly till lunch ! i feel in sucha good mood after i drink it i dont know why. maybe its the maca lolol.

ANYWAYS this is getting long and i talk about food waaaaay too much so hopefully this is the right place to do it !! i know my boyfriend has certainly heard a lifetime's worth of raw food talk from me ..... but he's sweet. anyways it's nice to be a part of this board after watching/reading it for so long as a non-member. and you're all so nice!

tonight i made my own raw chocolate and took a long bike ride. it was nice. i'm trying to get more muscle tone in my legs.

a warning that there might be a lot of pictures because photography is kind of my favorite hobby !


applebaby.




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/2007 04:29AM by applebaby.

I wrote down your green smoothie recipe. It has tons of stuff in it, and things I haven't ever tried...like maca powder, goji berries, and cocao nibs. I was thinking that it would be good to make for my adult son, who needs something to shore him up at the start of his day.

Can you tell me how much of each item you put into your smoothie and how much it makes? I'm calling it the 11 Indgredient Smoothie.

Love,
Prism

Congrats on going raw and feeling better, applebaby. I am sure we will all enjoy your photos. This photo was very nice and whoever it is has pretty eyes!

Where do you get your Maca powder? Do you buy that online or at a Whole Foods or something? Thanks!

aw thankyou !! yeah i've discovered maca recently, and i love it ! it gives me plenty of energy in the morning and just a positive feeling. it's also supposed to help with stress which in my job i need !! i live in canada so i get it at a place called sunrise health foods. i was luck to find it! they also sell it at vita health here and probably other random health food stores. there's no whole foods anywhere near me unfortunately ! it would make my life sooo easy.

i think in general as time goes on i crave cooked food less and less. i definitely feel cleaner inside though i get hungry very frequently. BUT AT THE SAME TIME..... wow i had the most delicious chilli today !!! after i tasted it i thought ... as if i could ever give up raw !!! WHAT HAS THIS MUCH FULL FLAVOR ?? i used lots of basil and tomatos on the vine. i think the ingredients you use always makes the biggest difference. and they were pretty tomatos ! i love tomatos. and i love beauty food. that's why i started this whole thing !! i cut myself some sweet boho bangs last night. i'm really enjoying processing all my own food, that is if it required processing. i always know that it is fresh this way and i know exactly how it was prepared. if i eat something processed (very very rare these days!) i feel like it is poisoning me inside. and i just get so much satisfaction out of doing it myself. i recently discovered the joys of a mortar and pestle! next thing i'm going to do is pick up a bag of raw peanuts at the bulk barn and make PEANUT BUTTEEERRRRR ahhh i'm so excited !!! i miss peanut butter, oh vegan treasures.

i just got back from my boyfriends house. he's so sweet! anyways. my birthday is coming up on the 31st and i want to look/feel my best. i kind of go crazy when it comes to birthday makeovers! but, i guess i'm just, waiting for my body to adjust to all raw all the time. and not be hungry hungry hungry all the time. now when i eat i feel very satisfied after, which is good. but maybe i need more filling foods or more protein or something to keep my going longer ? i don't know what's happening !

but i found out a couple nights ago that i am going to make tuition for beauty school by july, 1 year. i'm so happy about that and really happy about the track that my life is on right now. i always used to think growing up was so scarry. i find myself more motivated than ever before, able to do more things than ever before.

goodnight.

Raw peanut butter sounds yummy! Maybe treats like that will help to fill you up.

Sounds like you should be a raw gourmet cook, because you seem to enjoy it so much. ;-) Me, I am lazy, so I just eat salads and fruit and fruit smoothies -- pretty simple stuff. I like to pick out different veggies and fruits to try though. It is satisfying to only put into your mouth what you prepare and you know what all the ingredients are, I agree.

so the last few days have been pretty good. been sticking to raw whole-heartedly even though i still think i have quite a bit of detox left because sometimes when i get really really hungry (like at work before lunch break!) i start geting crazy cravings for all this cooked junk food and sometimes (maybe my body is like burning fat from fat stored up from something i ate years ago ??) i can swear that i can taste something again that i ate a loong time ago! does that happen or am i going crazy ?? like iive only been vegetarian/vegan for about half a year but sometimes i swear that i taste meat! which is extremely gross to me but ANYWAYS. lately i've really beenm enjoying ... THIS !!!:




a chilli recipe from rawvolution. i add a tiny bit extre chilli powder and a quarter of a jalapinio to give a little kick ... i like it spicey . but ohhhh gosh it's soooo tastey. i don't know what it is about it. and yeah i used to have reaaallly bad stress at work but now i find myself never stressin and in a good mood! maybe because it's partly due to i'm learning how to do be better at my job (i currently help manage a retail clothing store!) but i think a lot has to do with becoming a lot healthier. it's not only affected my body but my mind as well which i really needed.

oh yeah and i made sunflower seed cheese! i have it stored in my fridge. its a think spread and it tastes lovely with carrot sticks! very filling too.

OH YEAH AND MY DAD BOUGHT ME A MINI-FRIDGE. i live at home so ... our fridge is always packed and eveyone eats my vegetables haha. not anymore !!!

Your chili pic looks real good. I want to make chili now. I just made some salsa it was good.
What is a boho bangs?
I havent tasted raw peanut butter. I thought peanuts were bitter. You seem to enjoy prepareing good foods. Maybe you should be a raw chef.
Thanks for sharing

oh yes it's soo delicious ! boho bangs is hair! straight-cut extra long bangs. i cut me some again! anyways.

things have been pretty good lately i guess. since i pretty much used to LIVE on carbs it's really hard sometimes when i see other people eating like, crackers or something. that's why i really want a dehydrator. so i can make some portable snacks to keep with me all the time so that i will never have to resort to cooked food!

i am starting to notice gradual but vast differences in myself after being raw for a few weeks now. even when i get not very much sleep and am tired when i wake up after like 5 minutes i feel totally fine again and do not feel tired throughout the day. if i didn't get enough sleep before, i used to be so tired and sluggish throughout the day. at least from what i can remember. and it's only been a few weeks.

my boyfriend was sick and i kissed him and for the first time i didn't catch what he had!

LOVE YOUR PICS!

aw thankyou!

today was kinda "slack" i guess! last night at work i had a huge breakdown and started to cry at the cash register lol. my manager took me to the back and talked about how rude customers REALLY get to me bad sometimes and also i've been doing our assistant managers job. sorry if this isn't about food yet! but today was much better.

i am trying to heal inside. from every unkind thing anyone has ever done to me.

it's hard sometimes, when people are so cruel, it's hard not to become hard and cruel yourself just out of a hatred for all the other people in the world. but i really don't want to be someone like that. it's hard to do sometimes when you are so sensitive inside. anyways i just finished a nice fruit salad ! 1 apple 1 banana 1 nectarine cut into small peices with some agave. also i made pasta alfredo today! i don't have a spirooli slicer so i spend 15 minutes cutting the zuccinni myself into tiny thin little strips lol. it works for me !!

the rest of my family had ribs. it looked like it contained 3454131 lbs of fat ! lately i have been craving sooooo bad cooked food something that will just make me feel full something anything and i don't want to eat TOO many nuts so i just have some fruit and leave it at that. some days that's all i want and some days i feel like i have to have to have cooked food! HAH! i never will though! i almost just want to really really lower my fat intake so i can get over this changing process already. it's frustrating !!

and i want to become at least 50% fruititarian because of the energy in fruits. i love love love that vegetable soup sometimes though !! ...

i'm going for a jog.
i hope i can get to the place that i want to be someday with all of this.

I'm sorry you had a bad day at work and that people were cruel to you. My sister works at Wal-Mart and I am always shocked at some of the stories she tells me about what people say to her.

I sympathize also with your family eating your old favorites while you are eating raw food. I picked up Taco Bell last night for my kids and several relatives last night and it sure looked and smelled good... But raw food is the only thing that makes me feel good and it's just not worth it.

You are doing great, keep it up!

i've been feeling better today, and just lately in general. i didn't expect the changes of sticking to an all-raw diet to come to gradually! i went to a party last night with a bunch of my old friends and my best friend jesse commented that i looked really good and had a glow! it made me so happy!! but yeah i feel cleaner inside. detox is not so bad as it was before. i am craving way less cooked food! last night i grabbed a recipe off goneraw, i had a marinated mushroom steak and broccoli! it was sooooooooooo good. mushrooms are like my favorite food. it really makes no sense, i mean they don't even have like a distinct flavor, but they taste so good to me!

havn't been as good with the excersize lately, and i'm feeling really tired right now, i'm not sure why. i'm not usually this tired so maybe it was something i ate. or maybe i just need a nap!

garden kale.


i've never been raw for this long before!

I think I read somewhere that mushrooms help with a craving for meat. There is something in them that satisfies that craving, but I can't remember what it is.

If you are tired, it sometimes means your body is borrowing energy for digestion. You may have overeaten something that was hard for your body to digest.

The marinated mushrooms and broccoli sound great! I can't eat too many mushrooms however (I mostly eat them on salads) as they require too much insulin and make me tired. I had to give up broccoli too because I am hypersensitive to it.

You are doing great! Keep it up!

I remembered what it is in mushrooms that makes them so yummy to us - glutamate. The Asians refer to that as the fifth taste and call it umami. Here is an article on it [www.mushroomcouncil.org].

ahoy!

i find lately i don't get hunger like i used to, or that 'full' feeling after eating, i think because now i eat smaller portions more frequently. and it's not liek one big heavy meal it's more like some grapes here, some salad here, an apple here, ect. and most of all lately it is a lot easier for me to not want cooked foods. like only if i am really really hungry and the smell of some cooked vegan foods wafting in my face i will want it but as long as i consistantly feed myself every so often i find cooked foods undesireable. and guess what!! today was my parents 25th anniversary dinner at my aunts house.

basically my whole big ukranian family was over, all S.A.D. eaters, so i brought a bag of fruit and some nuts for myself. everyone chowed down on over-heaped plates of roast, potatoes and gravy and i ate my cut-up kiwi, banana, and my salad with hemp seeds! i even ate the skin off a cabbage roll but when i ate it and a little of the rice it was so flavorless and mushy it wasn't very desireable. i didn't like it very much so i did't eat the rest. it reminded me of how it felt like before i was raw and how you have to eat so much just to feel full.

my body feels a lot cleaner now after over a month i think it's been. but i still have some detox to go! i definitely realized today that my personal taste has totally changed and i prefer raw foods to cooked foods. which is probably why it's been so easy for me to resist lately ...


1 month raw baby!!


i used to have really gross skin. this is my main motivation for becoming/staying raw. and IT DEFINITELY MOTIVATES ME.

peace & love!

Congrats on being one month raw! Sounds like you are doing really great. Looks like you have great skin now, based on your picture.

things have been going really well.

even when i am mad, i am not even really mad. it's hard to describe. i am young still and i live at home. i get along with my parents great now. which is REALLY weird. this time last year i was soo uncomfortable and angry just being in the same room. not even for any particular reason. i was smoking weed in the park and distancing myself as much as i could from my home and my family like they were a poison. i don't even know what changed to be honest. maybe that i am older? or that i stopped drinking and that stuff? becuase i work full time now? i have no idea but. even at work the rude customers who used to bother me a lot no longer bother me at all. i don't notice them. i don't feel aggitation. i feel gentle and understanding always. i feel relaxed and at ease inside.

it's very strange.

oh yeah! and i have been VERY MUCH enjoyign the season! harvesting season that is! everything at the store is half-price! fresh juicy plump little tomatoes on the vine in my chili, juicy peaches for lunch, delicious sweet pineapple smoothies for breakfast. i live where we get very long cold winters and its not very often i get such fresh juicy fruits by the dozen for cheap!

basil is my favorite herb. the smell is intoxicating.

applebaby that all sounds wonderful glad things are looking up and turning around from you congrats on your accomplishments

i notice you said youre ukranian family

im still on the quest to find the raw version of perogies ..i think these are the one thing i miss most lol

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

really? i saw a recipe for raw perogies once, some seed cheese wrapped inside some very thinly sliced jacama slices! it really looked like perogies. but i don't think i'd ever be able to make that!


anyways. this board is now my favorite place on the internet! more than livejournal or myspace even! here's what i ate today:

breakfast: smoothie (orange juice, 1/3 pineapple, 2 bananas, hemp seed, goji berries, maca, spirulina) and a plum.

lunch: bowl of vegetable soup, small little salad with cabbage, avacado, tomato &cuke with pine nut dressing, then 1 banana, 1 peach, 1 plum.

dinner: made a curry with 1 tomato, 1/3 cup chopped onion, 1/3 cup chopped coconut, 1 clove pressed garlic, lemon juice, curry powder, nama shoyu. it was really delicous! then 1 peach and 1 banana.



i find i am feeling my best by far when i eat high or all fruit. and fruit makes my skin so nice! ah the never ending skin quest! i can't help it, i want to be a skin care specialist. something i've noticed though, recently on my raw food journey and high-fruit diet, my skin is very fragile! i manage to give myself another tiny little cut on my hands somehow everyday. i remember before when i was cooked my skin being more tough and thick, i guess dryer, and just, less fresh. but inside ... i feel warm and like, comfortable. i am very much less stressed at work and i used to have major work stress problems. even when thigns flip out of control all of a sudden i manage to keep a clear head and work through the problems.

i want more coconut curry !!!



my dog.

hey there...wow you have quite the journey started!! yay for you...you are doing great...i was just welcoming all the new people who have joined up on our diary section here since i was on a bit of a vaca for a month haa...keep up the great work and take care!!
lots of love
earthangel
xoxoxoxo

Much peace and love!!!
EarthAngel
Xoxo

thanks earthangel!


08/28/07

on top of starting to steer away from the nuts and being dependant on the nuts (which i am no longer!) i am steering away from salty things too. what i mean by this mainly is just like recipes that use lots of nama shoyu and stuff like that. NOT cutting them out!.. just like.. replacing them once in awhile with fresh fruit.

i know i've talked about it before but i am jsut really amazed at how much my stress level has improved!!!! i feel so much better! and even with my new poisition (assistant manager) i havn't freaked out about anything yet.

i used to think being raw meant i'd have to like be able to prepare all these extravagent gourmet meals for myself 3 times a day. i didn't realize i could just pick up a peach, wash it and eat it !! i love raw food.

my brother had his birthday and had a junk food/video game party with all his friends. I REALLY WANTED CHIPS (they used to be my favorite and they were sitting right there callnig to me) but i didnt eat them !! i thought about how i used to feel and how much life has improved since going raw and i didnt want to compromise any of that. so i made a delicous chili! mmmmmm......

thatsd all for now.
CHEERS.

old picture. i used to have black hair!

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY IN 3 DAYS! I'M SO EXCITED!
21 babyyy !

i've been eating a lot of greens the last couple days! that's unusual for me but i have just been craving them !! theyr'e so good !! anyways so i was at my esthetician today talking about hobbies and realized that food is like my biggest hobby now. i mean i realize that i had to learn how to prepare food to survive in this lifestyle but i talk about food like ALL the time and spend a lot of time reading raw cook books and on this board and MAKING all the raw food for me to eat .. it's such an awesome hobby because
a) its fun to prepare the food (if you're me that is ..)
b) YOU GET TO EAT your art creation
c) the food makes you feel so awesome since it's so healthy !!

it's been a month and two weeks since raw. i am noticing a lot of outer characteristics now. like i'm looking at pictures of me from like 2 months ago and it's almost like it's a different person ! why don't i jsut show you what i mean??



before raw.


today.



i gotta gooooo !

cheers.

You're looking good and doing great, applebaby! Keep posting those awesome pictures.

thanks karen !!

today i fasted on just water. i definitely had a lot more time on my hands .. wow .. i spend a lot of time of food each day!! anyways. i kind of just wanted to give my body a chance to cleanse itself of my old non-vegetarian way of living 6 months ago and beyond. i know that will take a lot longer than one day but i'm curious as to if i'll feel a tiny bit mroe able to adjust after this. i wanted it to be at least 2 or 3 days but at this point i don't know what's even best for me! also i work full time and on my feet all day at work and i don't want to exert myself too much or pass out in front of customers (lol). maybe i will fast another day, maybe not, i don't know! i think either way i'll be fine. hm now that i think about it maybe i will not fast another day. one day is good enough to start off with and later on i cn do a more extended water fast. mmmm kiwis tomorrow morning!!! anyhow i keep wanting to rush this process and this change. i have been raw about a month and a half! i got really frustrated yesterday when my body felt starving all the time even after i just ate a big meal. anyways.

excited for kiwis tomorrow!

excited to continue on my raw journey!


PEACE &LOVE.

i'm actually really sad right now, i developed this impulse to just eat constantly and like i am obsessed with food and feel starving even right after i eat. i ate some cooked food wondering if it would go away, some cooked sprouted grain tortilla with hummus, then yesterday i had some wholegrain noodles with tomato mushroom sauce (cooked) on top of my raw menu. but every time i eat cooked food i end up just all-out binging eating until i feel so sick and my stomach is so taught and bloated but yet i want more. my compulsion to always want to eat is beginning to fade a little, probably because it's my cooked food addiction. i don't enjoy having so much cooked food in my system, i want to slowly come off of it again, really badly, but i don't know. i'm really mixed up right now. i think it's just cooked food addiction, and i don't want to feel/look like crap all the time again. i'm really sad. someday i want to live off of mostly fruit too. but it's so far away and i feel so discouraged.

however, i went to the dentist today !! i used to have major gum problems.. AND GUESS WHAT? the dentist said there was an immense improvement sicne my last checkup 6 months ago (before raw)!!!! and he was like wow no cavities!!! the hygenist asked me if i had been flossing a lot more now. and to tell the truth ... i havn't (oops). i've just been eating raw foods !!!

not as much the last 2 days though. i mean at least 50 - 60% raw the last 2 days but it's nowhere close to my 2 months on 100% raw. my first attempt only lasted a week or two, this seems to be my second attempt which was 2 months long, and maybe in the future it will be a lot longer as i learn how to fend for myself and outlast cooked food addiction? if you're reading this and know how to help with this at all ... please let me know !!

well i'm out, going to eat pineapple and make some pine nut dressing to eat with kale! today i am definitely not going to eat until i feel like i'm going to burst becase my stomach is still sore from yesterday and it is jsut a terrible feeling. hopefully i can find some more encouragement somewhere because right now i really have none.

peace &love.

Most of us try multiple times to switch to a raw food diet before we finally succeed. I've been through exactly what you are going through right now and with me it was even worse, because my blood sugars were going crazy!! Maybe it's kind of like quitting smoking, that usually takes multiple attempts too.

But we learn from each switch back to cooked food and it makes us stronger for the next attempt. Actually, you did great for your second attempt - 2 months - woo-hoo! You should be proud! And the dentist's report shows how good it was for your teeth, just think how great it was for the rest of your body too!

What is eliminating my cooked food cravings, when I do them, this time around is colonics or enemas would work too. Yuk, I know but it helps so-o-o much on the cravings that you wouldn't believe it. Matt Monarch strongly advocates them and there is a vegan2rawvegan dvd out there that I hear shows a guy switching from vegan to raw vegan and he is talking about how isn't feeling good on the raw vegan diet and then he goes and gets a colonic and comes back feeling great!

It's just that when we are eating a raw vegan diet, we are detoxing so fast that our body can't keep up with it and the toxins build up in our colon and if they aren't eliminated they start recirculating in our blood and set off the cravings. Barring that maybe a colon cleanse supplement would help. Another idea is EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) a tapping technique that I have used in the past and love. There is a free beginner's manual at www.emofree.com.

But, of course, I am no expert. Just some thoughts. I'm sure other people will have other ideas. Take care of yourself, applebaby!

karennd Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> But we learn from each switch back to cooked food
> and it makes us stronger for the next attempt.
> Actually, you did great for your second attempt -
> 2 months - woo-hoo! You should be proud! And the
> dentist's report shows how good it was for your
> teeth, just think how great it was for the rest of
> your body too!


AHHHH i just typed a whole message and clicked 'quote' and erased it !! blarg !!!

karen: really? that is so encouraging to hear, thankyou ! i really do feel i have learned somethign significant that i did not see before. thankyou so much!!

anyhow what i talked about is basically how i ate a lot of cooked food the last few days which started out with cooked grains, then vegetable stew, rice, pasta. and some processed food probably along the way too. nothing non-vegan! but i feel soooo sick and disgusting right now i woukd do anything to change it. but there's nothing i can do right now. just sit. and wait for it to pass through. so that i can change. because if there is something i have learned it's that i definitely overeat on cooked EVERY time and since the flavor is so bland with cooked food you have to add so much salt and sugar to give it flavor and i feel so crappy. at first i was fine. but i am not anymore. i'm not fine at ALL at the moment. what's strange tio me is hwo i ate cooked food for 20 years and was fine then i go raw and as soo nas i go back to it it feels like 10x as gross as it would have before i was raw and i can't stand the feeling.

basically what i am saying right now is that i am fed up and at first eating cooked food i had no idea if i would want to go back to raw in fact i was pretty sure i wouldn't and wasn't going to, but i am gonig back to raw foods. and after transitioning i am going going 'high raw' because that will jsut lead to the flood gates opening and all the cooked food will ultimately dominate over the raw. i feel like a bloated slug - lol. this sounds so harsh i mean most people eat cooked food every day at every meal and i don't know what's so different about me but i really do feel totally sick right now and need to change badly.

SO .... I'LL WRITE IN A FEW DAYS AND SEE HOW IT'S GOING!


peace&love.

I just thought I would mention that Matt Monarch and Fred Bisci think that when we eat raw food it sensitizes (as well as cleans us out) to cooked food and so then when we go back to eating cooked food it has an even worse effect on us than before. Fred is a 40 year raw foodist and if he ate a whole hamburger right now it would probably kill him. Matt is a 7 year raw foodist and if he ate half of a hamburger right now it would probably make him very sick. If we fed a toddler a hamburger for its first ever cooked food, it would probably make him throw up. But we give them a little rice cereal, some cooked veggies, some cheerios, crackers, etc. and we work up to that hamburger and then the toddler eats it just fine.

Anyway, I thought it might help to understand why cooked food is making you feel even worse than it did before. But actually your body is more vital now, after eating raw foods, and you are experiencing acute symptoms instead of chronic symptoms. Before you might have felt better but your body was actually creating the beginnings of some other chronic disease below the surface...

Just some thoughts.

COOL. because yeah, my favorite food in the world used to be pasta. before being a vegan it was creamy alfredo pasta, after vegan i ate tomato mushroom pasta, at LEAST once a day, EVERY day, for a long time !! and yesterday i ate a whole lot of it (just as much as i used to) and i felt more gross inside and litterally sick than i have been in awhile! that sucked. but yeah. it made me think. i am attempting again to be raw. this morning i was still so full and queezy from the cooked food all i had was a tall glass of fresh oj. i had a big green salad for lunch and can still feel the queezyness inside (nautious) but i trust it will dissipate in time.