I absolutely love the raw vegan lifestyle, it is not only a way of eating, but a way of living.
In October last year I quit eating animal products, up until this year in july - august when I was in hospital for 13 days (congenital hip dysplasia) and I ate cooked plus animal food (though only little chicken and chicken liver). I took it as an experiment and I realized that I could never go back to cooked and animal food.
In June this year I left cooked food behind - my cooked staples were home made bread (made by me), potatoe puree and polenta.
Since leaving the hospital I continued on my raw vegan path and I turned it into my lifestyle.
I exprimented with fats like coconuts and walnuts (walnuts are my fav). As cold weather came, I included frozen spinach, frozen green peas, pickles in salt and green olives - though I know they are not totally raw due to brine and pasteurizing.
Starting today I decided to stay 100% raw vegan, so no more questionnable products.
After I finish the stack of walnuts (organic, from my brother-in-law's yard), I intend to move on to no overt fats, all high carb raw vegan, mostly sweet fruits, as I function best on fresh sweet fruits.

My today's menu is as follows:

- (during the night and early morning): 3 plums (each at different hour)
- (10:50 a.m.) 2 green bell peppers stuffed with walnut cheese (100 gr soaked walnuts, lemon juice from 1 lemon, 2 small tomatoes) plus another 7 small tomatoes
- (12:50 p.m.) the juice and pulp from 1 lemon
- (1 p.m.) salad from 7 small tomatoes (only sliced tomatoes, no dressing)
- (2 p.m.) 1 large banana
- (3:15 p.m.) 400 gr white grapes
- (4:35 p.m.) 5 plums
- (6:10) 17 plums

My water intake depends on how many juicy fruits I eat. When I eat walnuts, my need for water is higher. I usually drink 2 (up to 3 liters in summer) of water daily (I only like sparkling water).

Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

Today 07.11.2013:

- (09:50 am) 27 plums and 50 gr soaked walnuts
- (12:50 pm) 2 small mashed bananas with 50 gr soaked walnuts
- (14:30 pm) 9 plums
- (18:30 pm) 500 gr white grapes

I really admire DurianRider and Freelee, and also RawGosia and Nora Lenz, they all helped me a lot in my decision to go raw vegan - I even sent an e-mail to Nora Lenz and she was so kind to reply, she gave me great advice.
I keep on reading on their websites, watching DR and Freelee videos on Youtube, this helps me a lot improve my raw vegan lifestyle, especially HCRV.

I must add that I live in Eastern Europe, so I write the hours according to my time zone.

Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/07/2013 05:11PM by Ela2013.

Yesterday in the evening while reading te recipe section on this website I craved fresh crispy lettuce so today after church I went to the market and got one head of fresh lettuce.

My menu:

- (07:30 am) 1 extra small and ripe banana
- (12:10 pm) 4 small ripe bananas
- (01:10 pm) lettuce wraps (the leaves from half a lettuce head; filling: 100 gr walnuts chopped in the food processor, half a long cucumber cut in cubes, juice from half an orange)
- (04:10 pm) 200 gr white grapes
- (10:30 pm) salad: 3 tomatoes, 2 green bell peppers, 1 red bell pepper, the other half of the cucumber; the leaves from the other half of the lettuce (not mixed in with the other veggies so that the lettuce leaves stay crispy)

I like this forum and this website so much, it's a place where I feel at home, among other raw foodists. I started reading the forum 2 days ago and I came across very interesting things. Congratulations to all who contributed to this forum and website!

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

Today in the evening I craved fresh crispy lettuce again - it’s a great meal to finish the day with.

My menu:

- (08:25 am) banana and walnut cake (the base: 100 gr soaked walnuts and 1 small banana; filling: puree of 2 small bananas; topping: orange slices)
- (10:50 pm) 500 gr white grapes
- (1:30 pm) 400 gr white grapes
- (3:55 pm) 2 small bananas
- (5:20 pm) 1 small banana
- (5:50 pm) 2 small bananas
- (7 pm) 100 gr white grapes
- (8:20 pm) 3 small red apples
- (10:30 pm) salad: 4 tomatoes, 3 green bell peppers, the leaves from half a green lettuce

Today I read some more in the discussions section, I am on page 18 out of 386, it’s amazing information, so much interesting and useful, it’s like I could keep on reading the whole night…

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/2013 10:20PM by Ela2013.

Since I said that I feel like home on this forum, I wish to tell you more about me.

My name is Michaela (my husband calls me Ela though) and I am 35. I live in a beautiful mountain town, Brasov (where the famous Black Church is), located in Romania, South-Eastern Europe.

I kinda didn’t like cooked foods much in my life, I was a picky eater, choosing only what I like (especially light meat, low fat dairy, sweets mostly in my childhood).
I’ve been on and off highly (raw) vegan, for a shorter or longer time, I really loved fruits and veggies and a large period of my life I was only eating those, raw or cooked or both. There were times when I’d only eat fresh fruits, like cherries, melons, apples, bananas, there were times where I’d mostly eat fresh veggies like tomatoes, salads in general, but I have always loved simple fresh fruits.

This year in April I was diagnosed with congenital hip dysplasia, I was in huge pain, I could barely walk. Doctors told me I need hip replacement surgery, some told me I need have it done this year, others told me to postpone surgery for as long as possible (when the pain is unbearable).

I refused to take traditional medication like anti-inflammatory, because I know it will only solve the effect and not the cause, it will just cover up the problem. Instead I took natural remedies like shark cartilage, silica, harpagophytum procumbens, zeolith. I also read a lot about appropriate foods for this health problem and I noticed that almost everybody recommended vegan or even raw vegan foods.

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

In the past months I felt that I didn’t like any animal food and I thought that, since this was the case, why even eat animal food at all? I felt no desire for them, no craving. So last October I stopped eating animal products and stayed highly raw vegan (raw all day and cooked meal in the evening, or the other way around). Except the time spent in hospital this year, where I decided to eat both animal and cooked food (I was under investigations, medical staff was kinda watching what we ate, there was outside foods restriction; but I also was weak so I kinda said that it will be an experiment and I can go back to highly raw vegan when got out of the hospital), I haven’t eaten animal food since October last year.

Still, I was on cooked food, I craved my home made bread (just whole flour and water, making a dough, forming sort of balls and put them in the oven - no yeast, no salt, but they were amazingly tasty). Also craved mash potatoes and polenta.

In June this year I decided to go all raw vegan, since I felt that the cooked foods I ate were addictive. Except the olives, pickles in salt and frozen packed vegetables, I only ate raw vegan food.

Also, I need to find out if nightshades can make my pain worse, I need to remove most of starches as I read they have their contribution to inflammation. I have removed onion and garlic as I couldn’t digest them properly, they were burning my stomach.

As I said in my first post, I intend and I need to go 100% raw vegan, I love and I need to eat fresh fruits mostly, my body functions best like that and I feel best when eating them.

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

If you have any recommendations, any thoughts and advice regarding the connection between raw vegan diet and my health problem, I would so much wish to read them, as any information on this is very precious to me (especially coming from a raw vegan community).

I am committed to being 100% raw vegan, it’s the lifestyle I love and I have already seen and felt its benefits.

Thank you all so much for everything you have written on this forum and for making this forum exist.

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

Today I had a revelation - the best sauerkraut ever (salt-free even).
I found the recipe for salt-free home made sauerkraut on a raw vegan Romanian website a while ago and I made some to test it. It takes 7 days to be ready but it is great because you can plan making it.

You put fresh white cabbage leaves on the bottom of a jar, then add chopped cabbage, then put on top of it more cabbage leaves.
Cover with fresh not tap water (I used light sparkling water) and on top of the jar put a bottle filled with water, for pressure purpose.
Let it sit at room temperature in a dark and dry place for 48 hours.
Make sure the cabbage is always covered with water.
From time to time press down the cabbage so that it is tight in the jar.
After 48 hours, put the lid tight to the jar and place the jar in the fridge for 6 days.
The taste is amazing, just like the traditional recipe, except there is no salt (I don’t like salty foods at all). I ate my sauerkraut just with tomatoes and it tasted great.

My menu:

- (07:45 am) banana and walnut cake (the base: 100 gr soaked walnuts and 1 small banana; filling: puree of 2 small bananas)
- (1:20 pm) 300 gr sauerkraut with 4 small tomatoes
- (1:50 pm) 300 gr sauerkraut with 5 small tomatoes
- (5 pm) 400 gr white grapes
- (7:10 pm) 2 bananas
- (10:05 pm) 600 gr white grapes

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

Today I have been doing some reading about sauerkraut and vitamin B12, and some said that apart from all the health benefits, raw sauerkraut has some B12, which encouraged me to make and eat raw salt-free sauerkraut more often. I will soon get to the posts about fermenting on this site too. I just love this type of sauerkraut I made and it makes me happy to have it in my menu.

My menu:

- (6:30 am) banana and walnut cake (the base: 100 gr soaked walnuts and 1 small banana; filling: puree of 2 small bananas and half an orange; on top: slices of half an orange)
- (12:20 pm) salad: 3 tomatoes, 3 green bell peppers, the leaves from half a green lettuce
- (2:20 pm) 600 gr white grapes
- (4:20 pm) 400 gr white grapes
- (6:20 pm) 2 large bananas and 1 medium banana

I’m on page 26 in discussions section.

Since cold weather is almost here (at least in Romania), what are your recommendations concerning raw vegan in winter?

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

Yesterday I made a new batch of raw sauerkraut - 2 jars of like 300 gr dry content each, and also one bigger jar (1 kg dry content).
When making raw sauerkraut, it’s best to prepare small quantities and eat the sauerkraut within several days, so that it is eaten fresh.

My yesterday’s menu:

- (4:15 am) banana and walnut cake (the base: 100 gr soaked walnuts and 1 small banana; filling: puree of 1 banana; on top: slices of an orange) (the cake on November 11 also had the cream from just 1 banana - not 2 bananas like I wrote)
- (12:15 pm) 3 bananas
- (1:50 pm) 1 small orange
- (3:05 pm) 4 red apples (Romanian type - sweet and mostly crunchy)
- (4:05 pm) 3 red apples (Romanian type)
- (7:35 pm) 2 bananas
- (10:30 pm – 1:30 am) 1 kg white grapes (while preparing the new batch of sauerkraut)

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

My today's menu:

- (10 am) 3 bananas
- (2:15 pm) 600 g white grapes
- (4:30 pm) 2 bananas
- (8:30 pm) cucumber spaghetti with spinach puree (spaghetti: 1 long cucumber – 200 g; puree: 500 g fresh raw spinach leaves, 4 tomatoes, 3 small green bell peppers); 6 small tomatoes

I recently bought an excellent spiralizer which has been a great help to me and a very fun way to prepare my meals. I just love the way veggies turn into thin, crunchy, extremely long spaghetti. There are so many combinations, so many possibilities, there is such a variety in meals using this great tool.
For the puree I use the food chopper with the "S" blade, it is very efficient.

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

Yesterday’s spaghetti were at 9:30 (not 8:30).
Also yesterday night at 1:15 am I had 2 small bananas.

My today’s menu:

- (10:25 am) 2 small bananas
- (11:45 am) 10 small clementines
- (1:40 pm) 2 bananas
- (3:40 pm) 1 kg white grapes
- (8:45 pm) zucchini spaghetti with spinach puree (spaghetti: 1 zucchini – 200 g; puree: 500 g raw spinach leaves, 7 small tomatoes, 2 small green bell peppers); 5 small tomatoes and 1 larger tomato; 1 small red bell pepper (I ate just half of all these)
- (9:15 pm) zucchini spaghetti with spinach puree (I ate the other half of this dish)

The clementines were very sweet and juicy – here in Romania now is their season, meaning this is the time when they are imported from their origin country, but they are incredibly delicious.

Something great happened today – I found a thread about total hip replacement, which is exactly the problem I’m facing (and I related this thread to the one about the operation and the one about post-operation). So thank you once again to all who wrote on this forum and thank you Jalanutan (Geo) for sharing your experience and making these threads possible.

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

Michaela,

I just read your posts. Good for you you sound like your doing it. Good luck and I hope your hip heals it's self.

Thank you so much, Eat Right4ur_Species
I feel so good on this lifestyle, I feel no struggle, no cravings, it all comes so natural, it's like I have been eating like this for all these 35 years of my life.
I am hoping too that I will be able to postpone hip surgery for so long that in the end there will be no need for it.
This forum helps me a lot, it gives me ideas and it also motivates me to go on.

My today’s menu:

- (10:10 am) 2 bananas
- (11:30 am) 2 bananas
- (1:50 pm) zucchini spaghetti with tomato puree (spaghetti: 1 zucchini – 200 g; puree: few pieces of zucchini, 5 small tomatoes, 2 very small green bell peppers); 3 small tomatoes
- (4:20 pm) 9 small clementines
- (5:20 pm) 3 bananas
- (8:30 pm) 600 g white grapes

My new batch of salt-free sauerkraut is in the fridge as of today until next Friday, after sitting at room temperature for almost 3 days. From what I smelled, looks like it’s even more sauer than the previous one, which means more tasty.

Today I read the thread about sauerkraut.

This forum has so much value, the discussions section is a real treasure. I am enjoying it on a daily basis, it’s my fav reading now.

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

Michaela,

I believe you're right to have great hope that your body can and will heal its self. I saw a documentary that was a PBS special with some doctor and he said that the human body is constantly rebuilding itself. He said in about every four months the body has totally regrown all new bones, blood cells... I was totally amazed. I have a few issues myself and I'm hoping that's true. I think you have to feed your body the right vitamins and nutrients to regrow bones, tissue and blood cells... We have to eat right for our species. There are 14 vitamins and 20 minerals the human body needs to maintain good health.

You should research foods that promote bone health. Find out what foods causes inflamtion and avoid them. It looks like to me you are eating too much food with high sugar. I have found if I eat all veggies, I can only eat one or two pieces of fruit per day before I go over the 40 grams of sugar that I'm allowed.

Here is a link to some of the vitamins:

[www.ehow.com]

Good Luck and Best Wishes.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/15/2013 10:28PM by Eat Right4ur_Species.

I realized that I haven’t said anything about my height/weight. My height is 1,63 cm. In July this year my weight was 52 kg, and in September this year it went down to 47,4 kg. My ideal weight at which I feel best would be like 43 or 45 kg. I trust that my body will give me the weight at which my body feels best.

My today’s menu:

- (10:50 am) 2 bananas
- (12:50 pm) 10 clementines
- (2:20 pm) 2 bananas
- (3 pm) puree of 1 banana, topped with slices of 2 clementines
- (9:15 pm) cucumber spaghetti with tomatoes (spaghetti: 1 long cucumber – 200 g; 5 medium tomatoes and 1 very small tomato; 5 very small green bell peppers

Eat Right4ur_Species, thank you for the link. I intend to keep reading and choosing the right food for my condition and for good health in general.
Regarding foods with high sugar, I just love fruits more than veggies, I find fruits are more filling and have a great taste, are easier to eat. I could never eat less fruits, but I could deffinitely try eat more veggies

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

I like the fact that even though I’m 35, everyone seeing me tells me I look like I’m 15. And when they hear I’m even married, they are in quite a shock. I think that it’s because I’ve always loved to eat as natural and fresh and light as I could, but also because of my faith in God and because I have always tried to be calm, happy and to have a young mind and spirit, no matter my age.

I guess that I will never behave like I am supposed to at my age – like when I’m 60, I’m sure I will never act like I’m 60 (meaning I will never wear only grey/brown clothes or be too serious and act as an old person). In my country is typical for old people to just act like old people – dress in dark colors, be so serious all the time, criticize and argue, be stressed and almost never saying a joke.
I choose to be different.

Yesterday at midnight I had like 50 gr white grapes.

My today’s menu:

- (7 am) 12 clementines
- (2:15 pm) 3 very small bananas
- (3:15 pm) 400 g white grapes
- (3:45 pm) 200 g white grapes
- (7:05 pm) 5 red Romanian apples
- (9:55 pm) 3 very small bananas

Also I was thinking that the fact that I am a raw vegan really helps me with my family life, as I live in an apartment with my husband and his parents, and I don’t have access to the oven as my mother-in-law has drinking problems; so because of her and the scandals she generates, in the past I was too afraid to use the kitchen, so I mostly ate cold meals – mostly fruits and veggies.

Now, the fact that I don’t need the kitchen (I now just use the fridge for keeping the sauerkraut, and maybe in summer for having cold watermelon) helps me a lot, because I am mostly staying in my room away from the scandals and eating my fruits and veggies.

I can’t afford now to move out and I would be so happy to do that, but I hope that in the future it’s something I can do. Until then, I keep on track and never give up. Though sometimes it’s so very hard, the scandals keep coming since 1996 until present…

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

Today I read more about sauerkraut, garlic and onion, nightshades, teeth care...so many interesting threads in the discussions section...I'm on page 162...

My menu:

- (11:05 am) 2 very small bananas
- (12:05 pm) 8 Romanian red apples
- (4:55 pm) salad: 7 tomatoes, 8 very small bell green peppers
- (5:35 pm) salad: 3 tomatoes, 7 very small bell green peppers
- (8 pm) 300 g white grapes
- (11:05 pm) 3 very small bananas

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

My today’s menu:

- (9:45 am) 50 g white grapes
- (10:35 am) 1 pink grapefruit
- (10:45 am) 3 very small bananas
- (1:50 pm) 10 clementines
- (4:35 pm) 10 very small plums
- (5:35 pm) 3 very small bananas
- (8:10 pm) 5 Romanian red apples

I am on page 326 on my reading. Very interesting subjects again.

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

My menu on November 20th:

- (9:35 am) juice from 2 pink grapefruits
- (9:45) 2 small bananas
- (10:30 am) 9 small clementines
- (12:35 pm) 4 small bananas
- (4:35 pm) 1 small carrot
- (6 pm) carrot spaghetti with mushroom puree and tomato puree (1 spiralized carrot, 21 small champignon mushrooms, 12 small tomatoes, 17 extremely small green bell peppers, lemon juice, half a small red onion)
- (8:10 pm) 2 small Romanian red apples
- (9:15 pm) 3 small bananas

This was the “revenge of the onion” day. The taste of the mushroom puree was too strong and the tomatoes had no taste (here the tomato season has ended – during summer we have great tomatoes), so I gave in, broke my rules and had half a small red onion to go with this food. Huge mistake. My eyes were immediately under attack, from the moment I started to cut the onion I felt the toxicity stronger than ever. It has been a while since I last had onion or garlic, exactly for this reason. I kept crying while eating and the power of the onion was stinging my eyes, I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Then my stomach was burning.

This was a classic example of eating onion just to cover a not-so-good taste or to make a food tastier. I won’t repeat this mistake ever again. I just hope that there is not much damage to my body and that the fruits will help me heal fast. And get rid of the bad onion after taste. I could have thrown away this food instead of choosing to eat onion, but I felt sorry at the thought of wasting all those veggies. My eyes and my stomach kept hurting even long after I finished my meal.

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

My menu on November 21th:

- (4 am) 7 small clementines
- (8:25 am) 3 small clementines
- (1:45 pm) 1 red apple
- (3 pm) 6 very small bananas
- (7:25 pm) 27 small plums (600 g)

I ate those clementines so early in the morning to make the onion aftertaste go away. I had a really bad night, I went to bed at 10 pm but I just slept for 2 hours, then after midnight I was awake until early this morning (reading on the internet). After eating the clementines I went to bed. I got up early for church. I spent almost the whole day in church, today was a very important religious holiday related to The Holy Virgin Mary entering Church for the first time, at the age of 3.

The onion experience had bad side effects on me. I experienced lack of sleep all night, headache, stingy hurting eyes and stomach burn. Even throughout the next day, I just couldn’t get rid of those effects which lasted until noon. In the evening, I felt no more onion aftertaste. I am clean now.

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

My menu:

November 21th (sequel):

- (9:15 pm) 3 small bananas
- (1:25 am) 10 clementines

November 22nd:

- (8:10 am) 9 clementines
- (11:55 am) 3 small bananas
- (12:55 pm) 4 very small tomatoes
- (2:05 pm) 300 g sauerkraut with some dill and 2 very small tomatoes
- (6:15 pm) 400 g frozen green peas with 5 very small tomatoes; 300 g sauerkraut with some dill and 2 very small tomatoes

The second batch of salt-free homemade sauerkraut turned out simply amazingly delicious. The combination of sauerkraut, dill and tomatoes was great, since dill and tomatoes are natural sources of sodium. This time the tomatoes tasted pretty good, considering the fact that now there are very few local producers who still have some tomatoes from their gardens to sell in the market. I drank the sour water from the sauerkraut too, since I used sparkling water. It had a great taste. I hope I’m not going to get ill because of this. I guess I’ll wait and see.

The past few days I experienced severe and intense cravings for green peas. Since it’s not the season for fresh green peas, I decided to give in and buy frozen green peas. Here in Romania there is an excellent brand of very sweet green peas, it’s my favorite; I have no idea if they are blanched or not – I can’t contact the producer because it doesn’t say on the package who the producer is (it just says “Produced in Romania”).
Since I have no proof of that so far, I decided to ignore this aspect and go ahead and eat them.

Up until reading on this forum, I didn’t know green peas can be blanched prior to freezing, because the taste is so fresh and “uncooked”, they really seem raw to me. What I knew was that they immerse peas into salted water in order to sort the green peas from the yellow and older ones, and then they rinse the green peas with lots of cold water to remove the salt. But the taste is absolutely not salty at all – it’s just the taste of raw green sweet peas. Anyway, when I eat green peas, I always manually remove the individual little transparent shells – for a better digestion, so the whole green peas become shelled split peas and you can see the little sprouted top on each half. I was wondering if frozen green peas can sprout and I intend to check this out these days.

By the way, the combination between sweet green peas, tomatoes and sauerkraut was delicious.

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/2013 06:56PM by Ela2013.

My menu:

November 22nd (sequel):

- (10:05 pm) 19 small plums (400 g)
- (0:15 am) 2 small bananas

November 23rd:

- (11:25 am) 400 g frozen green peas with 6 very small tomatoes; 400 g sauerkraut with 3 very small tomatoes; half a head of green lettuce (the tender inner leaves)
- (3:25 pm) 400 g frozen green peas with 10 very small tomatoes; 300 g sauerkraut with 7 very small tomatoes; several green lettuce leaves (the outer leaves)

I was thinking…I have never actually tasted raw fresh green sweet peas, so I don’t know what they taste like, so I can’t compare raw and frozen green peas. I used to help my mom and my grandma separate green peas from their pods (when I was little), but I don’t remember if I ever tasted raw green peas back then. I remember eating cooked green peas though.

I was also wondering what exactly in the green peas made me crave them. I guess it’s the fact that they are more dense food and similar to cooked one. So if they are blanched that’s even more of a reason to crave them. They do give me the feeling of a fuller meal, they make me feel more full and I don’t get hungry after eating them for at least 4 hours. But I also feel that I digest them slower that fresh fruits / veggies. Must be the starch in them. I don’t feel so light like when I’m eating fresh sweet fruits.

An interesting thing happened: after eating them, I no longer craved them, it’s just like I just wanted to taste them and that’s it, it all stopped there. The next day I didn’t crave them again, I didn’t feel the desire to eat them again, so I decided I will never buy frozen green peas again. It would be wise to just wait for the season of truly fresh raw ones, and then I will be able to compare the taste.

I think I’m still in transition to 100% raw vegan. This happens exactly when I’m saying to myself that I’m finally all raw vegan – a craving like this comes out of nowhere and I need to stop and deal with it. I think it’s also wise to actually stop and deal with each craving, so that afterwards I rest assured that it was nothing that important. Taking one step and one thing at a time is what works best (for me at least).

I ate the rest of the green peas today (even if I didn’t crave them anymore). I ate them with content, I enjoyed the taste, but that was all, it all stopped there. No further cravings. I must say I felt quite guilty at the thought that they might actually not be raw – of course they are way better than actually cooking them in a pan with oil, salt and the rest…but still, not the same as fresh raw ones in the pods.

I read somewhere that in order to get rid of a craving, you should eat more of that food and then you will feel full and you’ll no more crave that food. It is true, I experienced this today – the green peas, tomatoes and sauerkraut day

Another interesting thing…as I was eating the green peas, I was craving sweet fresh fruits…that must mean something, right?

So starting tomorrow I will concentrate on exactly this - sweet fresh fruits, but I will also keep listening to what my body has to say.

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

I got two answers from Dr. Graham:

1. Regarding frozen green peas: it’s up to me to decide how committed I am to 100% low-fat raw vegan; frozen green peas are not raw.
2. About my hip dysplasia: there’s no counter indication to being raw vegan; 811 rv is the lifestyle to thrive on.

I’m also waiting an answer from him regarding homemade raw salt-free sauerkraut.

My menu:

November 23rd (sequel):

- (5:25 pm) 1 head of green lettuce (without the outer leaves)
- (8:30 pm) 4 very small bananas
- (11:35 pm) 1 kg clementines

November 24th:

- (8 am) 3 bananas
- (1:45 pm) 24 plums
- (2:45 pm) 12 plums
- (5:15 pm) 2 bananas
- (8 pm) 2 bananas

After finishing the lettuce, I just couldn’t wait to eat sweet fresh fruits. Those bananas, though extremely small, were extremely sweet and nourishing…nothing compares to sweet fresh fruits…

The clementines were just what I needed to end this long day, I needed some juicy sweet fruits.

I noticed that I’m not very drawn to veggies after all, at least not these days. Sweet fresh fruits are so easy to eat, so complete, so delicious…

Today I didn’t feel good because of yesterday’s green peas. I felt bloated all day, not much energy, pain in my stomach, I felt like I was suddenly overweight. I’m hoping the fruits will help me feel better tomorrow. I do not feel clean and light now.

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

I got the answer from Dr. Graham regarding homemade salt-free sauerkraut: he said it’s more like rotten cabbage than anything else.

My menu:

November 24 (sequel): (10:45 pm) 200 g white grapes

November 25:

- (9:20 am) 3 Romanian red apples
- (11:05 am) 3 bananas
- (1:30 pm) 1 kg white grapes
- (6:20 pm) 2 bananas
- (5 pm) 2 bananas
- (7:30 pm) 12 clementines
- (9:45 pm) 6 Romanian red apples

I still felt bloated all day today, again not much energy, annoying pain in my stomach, feeling like I had a rock in there. I experienced this earlier this year, when I’ve been eating frozen green peas everyday for like a week. Then I got constipated and for another week or so I was feeling bloated and in pain. Looks like I haven’t learned anything from that time – otherwise I wouldn’t have eaten frozen green peas again.

I am wondering how can Durianrider and Freelee do the “eat raw ‘till 4” thing and then dig into huge portions of cooked starch in the evening, after being raw all day, and still feel great afterwards.
And I felt so ill after eating blanched starch.

I’m reconsidering even eating fresh raw green peas next year when in season. I guess maybe I will never eat any kind of starches again, frozen or raw.

Yesterday evening I noticed two light pink swollen spots in my elbow area, today they were still there but not swollen anymore. Maybe it’s detox.

Starting today I am back on using my stationary bike that I have in my room. Cycling is a great exercise for my condition.

I read some more about starchy foods today, it deffinitely convinced me more than ever to stay away from them.

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

Today we had the second snow (the first snow was on Octomber 1).

My menu:

November 26:

- (10:25 am) 6 Romanian red apples
- (12:40 pm) 10 clementines
- (2:40 pm) 10 clementines
- (5:25 pm) 10 clementines
- (7:30 pm) 900 g white grapes
- (10 pm) 3 bananas

Today I woke up feeling better, but with a light headache and my right eyelid was swollen. I usually get swollen eyes when I eat olives or salted pickles/sauerkraut (which obviously wasn’t the case). I don’t know what caused the swollen eyelid in this case. Possible detox again. The light pink spots in my elbow area are gone.

I feel I kinda got the green peas out of my system. I had an almost flat stomach this morning and almost no more pain. Simple sweet fruit mono-meals do wonders.

The frozen green peas are indeed dead food – I tried to sprout a pea but after 5 days it turned from green to white-yellow with a bad smell.

This morning I saw a documentary about a family that turned their lifestyle into an ecological one, from city life to the countryside. Still, they raised their own pigs and then they slaughtered them for New Year’s Eve feast. The mother said she never thought she would witness their own pigs being killed to be eaten – not in her own yard anyway. She felt sorry for this. She added that this event might just determine her to become a true vegetarian. Someone told her that she doesn’t have to watch it, she can stay in the kitchen having a cup of tea while the pigs are killed.

Yesterday I clicked on a link to slaughtering pigs and what was shown there was so awful that I couldn’t watch. It reminded me of a short video that Durianrider posted on his blog – I watched that one, but in the end I was crying. That proved to me that I could never go back to eating animal products.

I recently read about honey collecting as actually being robbed from the bees, because they make honey as their food for winter (instead of honey, the bees are then fed with syrup, molasses or just water and sugar). The same happens with milk being taken from cows that have just given birth and need to feed their babies, or taking eggs from hens instead of letting them hatch the eggs.

I was wondering if raw vegans still wear genuine leather shoes and leather coats, leather purses, etc. I must admit that I still wear and use several leather articles that I received / bought. But I started to feel bad about this, thinking that animals must be killed for food and also their skin is used for all these things we wear and use. I’m thinking that once the leather things I use now are broken, I will no longer use / buy / accept leather things (or maybe I should just donate them). I can very well use things made from fake leather or other materials. And at least I will know that I didn’t promote / encourage the use of animal leather.

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2013 09:20PM by Ela2013.

Today I got my first money from social insurance in support of my health condition. It’s not much each month, but it sure helps me since I have no other income and money are always short here in Romania (at least for the middle class). It is kinda difficult to get fresh fruits and veggies in winter time, because prices are up, but I’m glad that at least I can find quality fruits, even if more expensive. My husband keeps telling me to stop eating so much fruit and eat more cooked cheap food and leave fruit for dessert. I told him that I’d rather fast than eat food I don’t want to eat.

My menu:

November 27:

- (10 am) 3 bananas
- (11:30 am) 3 bananas
- (2:15 pm) 1 kg white grapes
- (7:50 pm) salad: 1 large head of green leaf lettuce, 1 kg small tomatoes, 8 very small green bell peppers, 1 long cucumber

Today I woke up feeling so much better, a little too sleepy though. Outside everything was white with snow and foggy up on mountains (I see mountain from my balcony – I’m staying in a room with balcony and it’s great view), very cold weather here now. I have my flat stomach back and no more stomach pain. I feel clean and light once again. Fruit is a miracle food.

The next episode of the documentary I was talking about yesterday: now they were eating chorizo made from the pig they killed for New Year’s Eve. Everyone in the house ate chorizo except the mother, who said that she can’t eat it because she saw the pig when it was alive; she also said that those in the house who can eat meat from the pigs are lucky, because they know that the pigs were well fed and taken care of.

As I went today to the market to get some fruits, I saw good tomatoes and I felt like eating a great large salad; I realized that I can’t eat only sweet fruits – from time to time, even if I don’t plan to, my body asks for veggies and greens. For the next days I plan a cabbage salad – today I bought fresh cabbage as well, as I felt like eating that too. Funny thing: my husband saw me while I was enjoying my large salad and asked me: “Isn’t that too much?” (very cute he was).

I ran into a question I never thought about so far: is it ethically wrong to ride a horse? Or does the horse like to be ridden?

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

My menu:

November 27: (11 pm) 2 bananas

November 28:

- (7:15 am) 2 bananas
- (11:05 am) 2 bananas
- (1:30 pm) 300 g white grapes
- (3:05 pm) 2 bananas
- (5:40 pm) fresh white cabbage salad (400 g fresh white cabbage, juice from 1 lemon); 4 tomatoes, 4 very small green bell peppers
- (8:30 pm) fresh white cabbage salad (400 g fresh white cabbage, juice from 1 lemon); 3 tomatoes, 3 very small green bell peppers
- (10:10 pm) 4 small bananas

I felt great the whole day, flat stomach, no stomach pain, good digestion. I allowed myself to rest the entire day, I wasn’t very hungry and my body told me that I need stay in bed and just rest. So I laid down and slept some more, was doing a lot of thinking too as I believe I began to detox emotionally as well.

I have a pair of earplugs because my husband snores a lot, so I use them at night. So today as I laid in bed I wore the earplugs and a black eye mask to relax my eyes (the type of mask that you get on the plane so you can sleep). I felt so cosy and good, because it was cold in the room and I was under two blankets and feeling warm.

One thing I know I haven’t done so far is getting more sleep. Usually I get up at 8 or 9 or sometimes 10 am, and I go to sleep at 11 pm or even past midnight (which is not good). I keep reading that especially on this lifestyle but also in general you need to sleep at least 10 hours, in order to allow the body to relax and rest. But I find it hard to fall asleep at like 8 pm as I don’t feel tired then. But I would like to give it a try and set a normal time to go to bed. I guess I’ll need transitioning here too, because I can’t do it just like that. It would be wise to slowly transition towards earlier sleeping hours in the evening, until I find it comfortable to go to bed at let’s say 9 pm.

I was thinking that I never had celery stalks. I kept reading that they are very good and especially when you have salt cravings (which I don’t have any more). When I was eating that lettuce salad I was thinking that it’s so good that it doesn’t even need salt or olives or onion to give it flavor. The mix of veggies was so delicious by itself.

The fresh white cabbage salad was ok, the lemon kinda too sour, the tomatoes were not that good (I didn’t buy those, they were in the house). I like green leaf lettuce salad better. Since I don’t like fresh white cabbage on its own and I have to mix in lemon juice so it softens, I will no longer eat cabbage (sauerkraut or fresh raw).

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

My menu:

November 29:

- (8:05 am) 2 bananas
- (12:15 pm) 100 g white grapes
- (12:50 pm) 500 g white grapes
- (12:40 pm) 1 banana
- (2:35 pm) 8 clementines
- (4:20 am) 3 bananas
- (8:05 pm) very large salad: 1 large head of green leaf lettuce, 1 long cucumber, 1 kg small tomatoes, 4 small green and red bell peppers
- (0:05 am) 4 bananas

The lettuce salad was just great, a very large one, so I ate it in almost an hour, enjoying it while watching a great talent show on a Romanian Tv channel.

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

Today on December 1 we celebrate Romania's National Day (similar to America's 4th of July).

Yesterday I felt like eating a large lettuce salad, but I only had 2 long cucumbers, so I dreamed of green leaf lettuce all night long. Hopefully I can have that salad today as a celebration, but I'm not sure there is good lettuce in the supermarket, as the veggie market might be already closed (here it's 1:35 pm now, and on Sunday almost all producers leave the market early at noon).

My menu:

November 30:

- (8 am) 1 banana
- (12:55 pm) 4 bananas
- (2 pm) 1 kg clementines
- (3:40 pm) 4 bananas
- (7:40 pm) 1 kg white grapes

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.