My menu:

January 24, 2014:

- (2 am) the rest of the raw vegan cake (from yesterday)
- (3 pm) 400 g frozen green peas with 3 tomatoes and 1 green bell pepper
- (5:30 pm) cauliflower puree (300 g raw cauliflower, 2 tomatoes, dill, the juice from half a lemon, 3 small cloves of Romanian garlic) with 1 green bell pepper and half a head of butter lettuce

Energy: 2115 cals
Calorie breakdown: 51.7% carbs / 10.2% proteins / 38.1% lipids

I chose to begin my day so early with the rest of the cake so that it would be a large distance to the following meal (11 hrs from previous meal and 13 hrs until the next meal).
I slept ok, the carob didn’t keep me awake as I thought it would, since it had such an intense chocolaty taste.

I found out that the lettuce I have been eating is called butter lettuce as it is the most tender and less bitter (with those tiny tender light green leaves in the middle).

Today's frozen peas were incredibly tasty, they were a lot more crunchy than the others and to me it seemed they were really raw (no trace of them being flash blanched this time), the taste was different and so very fresh. Also, the peas were larger. It is a good thing, maybe they blanched them less or maybe they changed their factory technology.

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

My menu:

January 24, 2014:

- (8 pm) 125 g dates (soaked for 1 hour)

Energy: 375 cals
Calorie breakdown: 96.7% carbs / 3.3% proteins / 0% lipids

January 25, 2014:

- (1:30 am) 125 g dates (soaked for half an hour)
- (10 am) 1 very small clementine
- (10:15 am) 3 very small bananas
- (2 pm) walnut pate on lettuce leaves (100 g soaked Romanian walnuts, 1 tomato, dill, 1 tiny shallot, the juice from half a lemon) with 3 tomatoes and a head of butter lettuce
- (3:45 pm) 1 green bell pepper stuffed with walnut pate and 50 g frozen green peas
- (4 pm) 350 g frozen green peas with 3 tomatoes

Energy: 1726 cals
Calorie breakdown: 56.5% carbs / 9.8% proteins / 33.7% lipids

The dates were delicious but very laxative as I noticed this morning. I won’t be eating dates again so that won’t be a problem anymore.

So I finished the dates I still had, I still have the carob, but I will use it in banana ice cream and in banana puree - maybe with few Romanian walnuts, as I still have like 240 gr.

These days while eating less fruits and more fats/sweets I noticed few changes: my digestion is not that good, my skin is drier.

Eating that raw vegan chocolaty cake made me realize I no longer like sweets (other than my sweet fresh fruits). If in the past I used to crave/love sweets in the cake shops or homemade sweets, at this point I practically can’t stand them (not even raw vegan ones). This makes me feel happy as I will never crave raw vegan sweets – only the delicious fresh sweet fruits. From now on, when looking at raw vegan sweets on the internet, I will just stick to the pics as I will know that they are not my fav thing to eat.

My husband wanted to taste the walnut pate on lettuce leaves so I gave him some. He really liked it, but he said he would not give up meat for this; he said that he can not feel full eating the walnut pate and that he can not eat much of this pate – just 3-4 mouthfuls, as it is kinda strong tasting.

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

My menu:

January 25, 2014:

- (8 pm) banana split (banana and carob cream, poured over bananas – 37 g carob and a total of 7 medium bananas)

Energy: 853.5 cals
Calorie breakdown: 92.6% carbs / 4.7% proteins / 2.7% lipids

January 26, 2014:

- (8:30 am) banana puree with carob and walnuts: 7 small bananas, 40 g carob, 40 g Romanian walnuts (soaked overnight)

Energy: 1019 cals
Calorie breakdown: 71% carbs / 5.7% proteins / 23.3% lipids

Yesterday I weighed the remaining carob after I made the cake – actually I used only 50 g carob for the cake, and not 120 g like I said.

The banana and carob cream was delicious, the real choco cream. The walnuts gave the cream the crunchy texture, it was very filling and good.

I think carob is very laxative too, because of the fiber. Yesterday evening after eating the carob cream I experienced stomach pain and bloating.

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



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2014 07:57AM by Ela2013.

My menu:

January 26, 2014:

- (3 pm) raw vegan lasagna: lasagna sheets – cucumber slices; filling: walnut and cauliflower pate (Romanian walnuts, cauliflower, lemon juice, tomatoes, garlic) (layer 2 and 3); cauliflower puree (cauliflower, lemon juice, dill, tomatoes, garlic) (layer 1); sauce: tomatoes, dill, garlic (on top)

- (3:30 pm) raw vegan sushi: cucumber slices; filling: walnut and cauliflower pate; cauliflower puree; walnut cheese (Romanian walnuts, lemon juice) (I rolled the cucumber slices and used toothpicks to make sure they stay rolled)

- (6:30 pm) raw vegan mayo salad: frozen green peas, cucumber, green bell pepper; mayo: Romanian walnuts, lemon juice)

For this menu I used: 200 g Romanian walnuts (soaked), 300 g cauliflower, 350 g frozen green peas, 9 tomatoes, 200 g cucumber, juice from 2 lemons, dill, 4 garlic cloves, 1 green bell pepper, 6 toothpicks (I made 6 sushi rolls).

Energy: 1874 cals
Calorie breakdown: 28.4% carbs / 11.3% proteins / 60.4% lipids

This was a delicious menu, I enjoyed making these recipes, it was so much fun to just improvise on the way and follow my imagination. I showed my husband each dish and he liked them all, he tasted them and he even ate some of the mayo salad (he didn’t want to add anything to it, he liked it as it was).

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

My menu:

Yesterday I forgot to mention this delicious dish I also made:

- (3:45 pm) raw vegan “Neat” Balls (“No Meat” Balls): balls made from walnut and cauliflower pate; sauce: tomatoes, dill, garlic

The texture was amazing, just like real meatballs, the taste was wonderful.

I could not end my Sunday without an amazing dessert:

- (11:10 pm) raw vegan Ice Cream Supreme: banana and carob ice cream, walnuts, banana and carob topping

For this magnificent ice cream I used: 4 frozen bananas, 2 not frozen bananas, 50 g carob, 50 g Romanian walnuts (soaked). I put layers of ice cream, on each layer I put pieces of walnuts, I put the choco topping and then more walnuts. The walnuts are not included in the ratios below as they are already included in those 200 g walnuts I mentioned for yesterday’s menu.

Energy: 699.3 cals
Calorie breakdown: 92.5% carbs / 5.1% proteins / 2.4% lipids

I must say that this ice cream was the best ice cream I have ever eaten, and had only 3 ingredients. The combination of banana ice cream and carob topping and walnuts was incredible, the taste was out of this world.

I had the best night sleep in a very long time after eating this ice cream. Must be the carob, as I read it’s loaded with magnesium, which helped me sleep so great. It is not the first time I had a good night sleep after eating carob (though not so great like this one), so I believe it is not just a coincidence.

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

My menu:

January 27, 2014:

- (1:35 pm) 5 very small oranges (and very sweet)
- (3:25 pm) 5 small bananas (and very ripe)
- (4:50 pm) 5 very small oranges

Energy: 900.7 cals
Calorie breakdown: 92% carbs / 5.4% proteins / 2.6% lipids

These bananas were so great, very ripe and sweet and soft, just melting in the mouth and so easy to digest. I really enjoyed them.

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

My menu:

27.01.2014:

- (20 pm) raw vegan ice cream: 10 small frozen bananas, 69 g carob; 2 small not frozen bananas (for the carob sauce)

Energy: 1299 cals
Calorie breakdown: 92.6% carbs / 4.8% proteins / 2.6% lipids

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

My menu:

January 28, 2014:

- (9:55 am) 2 small red apples
- (11:20 am) 2 small red apples
- (11:50 am) 2 very small red apples
- (1 pm) 5 very small oranges
- (2:30 pm) 2 small oranges
- (3:40 pm) 2 oranges
- (7:30 pm) 400 g frozen green peas with 2 tomatoes
- (8:30 pm) salad made of 2 tomatoes, half a green bell pepper, 5 tiny shallots
- (9 pm) salad made of 1 tomato, half a green bell pepper, 5 tiny shallots

Energy: 958 cals
Calorie breakdown: 84.4% carbs / 11.9% proteins / 3.6% lipids

Yesterday evening I again had great stomach pain and bloating. I think it was the carob again. Anyway, I finished it and I will no longer buy it and also I will not buy dates and walnuts again. Starting today I am moving forward with only fruits and veggies as I once again was confirmed that these are the only ones that do me and my body good.

When preparing the salads, the shallots really attacked me, even if they were very tiny – they made my eyes water and sting, and they had a strong taste. They made me feel spacy/dizzy. I have few more for tomorrow (I am planning a large tomato/bell pepper/cucumber salad) and then I will no longer buy/eat onion/garlic.

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

My menu:

January 29, 2014:

- (8:10 am) 3 small bananas
- (12:10 am) salad made of 5 tomatoes, half a long cucumber (150 g), 1 long red sweet pepper (130 g), 10 tiny shallots
- (1:30 am) 400 g frozen spinach, 2 tomatoes, half a long cucumber (150 g), 1 long red sweet pepper (130 g)
- (2:45 pm – 3:45 pm) 450 g frozen sweet milky yellow corn
- (6:30 pm) 400 g frozen green peas with 2 tomatoes
- (7:40 pm) 4 small bananas
- (8:50 pm) 5 small oranges

Energy: 1961 cals
Calorie breakdown: 83.1% carbs / 11.2% proteins / 5.7% lipids

The sweet corn was very good after the shallots, I needed its sweetness to change the onion after taste. The spinach was also good, I remembered the frozen one being more cooked as being quickly blanched, but it tasted rather raw. But the green peas will always be my fav of all frozen veggies.

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

My menu:

January 30, 2014:

- (11 am) 10 very small oranges (but very sweet and juicy)
- (1 pm) 5 small bananas
- (6:30 pm) 400 g frozen green peas with 2 tomatoes
- (8:30 pm) 7 very small oranges
- (11:30 pm) 400 g frozen green peas with 2 tomatoes

Energy: 1898 cals
Calorie breakdown: 84.9% carbs / 11.7% proteins / 3.3% lipids

I decided that starting tomorrow I will no longer eat frozen green peas, though I really like them. I said that before and I haven’t done it, but I think now it’s really time to move on to only raw fresh fruits and veggies, as I really want to experience the benefits of a fully raw vegan lifestyle.

When they are in season, I will definitely buy and eat green peas really fresh and raw, I can’t wait to taste them and see what they taste like in their raw state (who knows, maybe I won’t even like them really raw). But until then, no more frozen peas – or other veggies for that matter. It will be difficult as I got so used to them, but I am willing to let them go – they did become kinda addictive, and that made me think there is much more to them than the actual peas – it must be the starch in them and the fact that they are blanched.

This made me think about the following idea: I can not say that fruits and veggies are addictive (to me at least). I do enjoy sweet fruits a lot, like bananas and oranges (today’s oranges were amazing, so very sweet and juicy), but I can not say I am addicted to bananas or oranges. I just eat them with pleasure and I know exactly when to stop as I do not want to eat another banana/orange.

The same with tomatoes, especially in summer, when we have the best tomatoes. I could eat them everyday, but I do not feel that I have an addictive relationship with them. I just eat them until I feel I had enough.

But with those frozen peas it’s different: I keep craving them over and over again and they do not even fill me up. Sometimes at some point I feel that they don’t even taste that great anymore, but the next day the craving is back. So there must be more to them than just me liking their taste.

To convince myself I looked at green peas in Chronometer and I found lots of differences between raw and frozen ones, like in frozen peas there is 800 mg more sodium, less fiber, less carbs and less proteins. That’s a pretty good reason to stop eating them.

So it’s finally time to be a grown-up about it and just let them go.

Tarah from 40BelowFruity has a ”Fruity Freeze 30 Day Raw Food Challenge” starting February and I am going to take that and use it to get rid of my frozen peas craving. She is living in the cold winter climate of Canada and she manages to stay fully raw, so I want to do that too and I want to be able to say I am fully raw.

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

My menu:

January 31, 2014:

- (1:50 am) 2 small bananas
- (9:50 am) 5 small bananas
- (2 pm) 6 very small oranges
- (4:15 pm) 4 medium bananas
- (7:30 pm) salad: 1 head of butter lettuce, 3 tomatoes, half a long cucumber (150 g), lots of dill, 1 long red sweet pepper (very sweet indeed)
- (10:30 pm) 5 very small oranges (again incredibly sweet)

Energy: 1681 cals
Calorie breakdown: 90.8% carbs / 5.9% proteins / 3.3% lipids

My thoughts on raw vegan lifestyle:

The raw vegan lifestyle is far more than counting calories and nutrient ratios.

The raw vegan lifestyle is more than numbers – is living life to its fullest, is having an abundant lifestyle full of raw fruits and veggies that you love and as many as you can incorporate into your life. Eating raw fruits and veggies just for the sake of it or just for belonging to a trendy movement is not going to bring you the real joy that a raw vegan lifestyle is meant to bring.

If you want to be a raw vegan, you need to live it, breathe it, feel it. You need to have peace within you, you need to feel blessed for the life that you have, you need to be compassionate about all the other beings. You need to be thankful for all the small things in your life: a beautiful sunrise, hearing the waves of the sea and the seagulls, watching the sun set over the mountains, breathing the fresh air, enjoying sweet fresh fruits and just waking up for yet another beautiful day.

And, as a matter of fact, everyone can and should do all the above, even if he is just a vegan, or a vegetarian, or an omnivore. After all, we all are, first of all, human beings, and we all should have the inner peace and happiness and love for all the other beings, just like God has created us in the first place.

I think that being a raw vegan definitely puts you closer to God and to being compassionate with other beings and being kind and loving and understanding, but all the others who are not raw vegans should be like this too, they have no excuse in not doing so as it should be in their nature to be kind and loving as well.

We should put behind the unimportant things and the negative thoughts and we should at least try and focus on the beautiful things that life has to offer to each and every one of us.

Today was the Preparation Day for my 30 day February fully raw challenge.

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

My menu:

February 1, 2014:

- (9:50 am) 6 small bananas
- (12 pm) 10 even smaller oranges (the size of clementines)
- (4:15 pm) 8 very small oranges
- (8:15 pm) salad: 1 head of butter lettuce, 3 tomatoes, half a long cucumber (150 g), 1 long red sweet pepper (100 g)
- (10:20 pm) 3 small bananas

Energy: 1431 cals
Calorie breakdown: 90.3% carbs / 6.2% proteins / 3.5% lipids

Today was Day 1 of my 30 day February fully raw challenge.

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

This has been on my mind for quite some time now:

Are raw vegans selfish? I am referring to the ones who are on a very tight budget and probably the only ones in their families having such a healthy lifestyle. And who deal with restricting calories on a restrictive budget.

Like me.

I have always loved fruits, both sweet and non sweet ones. Not so keen on leafy greens though. But I just loved sweet fruits for as long as I can remember. Back home, living with my family, I had access to a large variety of fruit, but I had competition coming from my second dad who is a fruit and veggie lover. As a matter of fact, he has always tried to teach us to love fruits and veggies and to have a healthy lifestyle (he always insisted on eating fresh fruits and veggies, on spending less water, less electricity, less gas, he taught us to love animals, birds, insects – his fav saying was “do not be scared of spiders, they do not bite” - he loves getting in tune with nature).

When I started to change my diet and incorporate more fruits and veggies, I find it difficult to share them with my family as my mom did not buy large quantities, so we had like 1-2 kg of apples for the entire family. I guess that back then I was already starting to prepare for an abundant raw vegan lifestyle. So I felt like I had to defend my fruit – I was like holding my bowl with cherries in my arms and wanting to enjoy them, when my brother would come and say “give me a cherry”, and I was like “no, they are all mine”. I guess back then I was half selfish and half defending my fruit, especially when there were no more cherries left beside that bowl.

I remember times when I had to hide my fruits in my wardrobe so that my mom did not find them and I got to enjoy them on my own. I do remember I never liked quinces. My mom used to place them under our windows and I used to hide them as far as possible so that she did not see them and remember to make me eat them.

Once I moved out to my husband’s town and I was on my own as far as my eating was concerned, I felt so free. No more fighting over fruits, I got to buy whatever fruit I wanted and as much as I wanted. I have been through times where I thought too much fruit was fattening (but just because I was eating a regular diet so I could not fit too much fruit into it), so I was eating fruit in the evening (like a fruit meal, a mono-meal). What I did not like was that I felt like I had to always weigh my fruit and make sure it was no more than 200 g of fruit at one meal. I was struggling with watermelon since a slice was more than 200 g, but I eventually made peace with it.

Then I had times when I ate cherries all day, watermelon all day, tomatoes, and I slowly stopped eating all other regular foods. I saw it was great for me, but I was afraid it was not a great diet after all since no one ever ate just fruits all day and no other foods (back then I haven’t heard of raw vegan diet).

All this time I had enough money to support my eating, my husband was helping me, his parents were buying lots of fruits and veggies to share and my parents were also helping me by sending me money. Plus, I was not eating all raw vegan then, and it was somehow easy.

After being diagnosed with my illness, I stopped working and I got retired due to my illness so I currently get a social insurance. The food arrangements became more difficult since my budget was far more tight. My husband helped me so much with my food, I could not have done it without him.

All is great so far, but I noticed that ever since I went raw vegan, everyone here in my husband’s family (my husband included) became more interested in fruits and veggies. This is such a great thing, but when there is such a limited budget, I started to feel threatened about them eating almost as much raw vegan food as I am eating. For example, my husband is coming home with lovely grapes for me. I start eating them, happy that I have food, and he goes into the kitchen and eats his regular meal. Then he comes into the room and says “I feel like eating some grapes”. Even though I like seeing him eating more fruits, I know that the only food I have available are those grapes. So I kinda feel torn between wanting to have food for me and wanting him to eat healthy too.

I recently started to share my food with him, even if this means less food for me, or fearing that the food I have left will not be enough until the next shopping day. Because of my illness, I am not allowed to carry heavy bags, so he does almost all the shopping. He is so loving and caring for bringing me lots of bags with fruits and veggies, that I just can not forbid him to eat from them. I sometimes tell him to stop smoking and then he will have more money for the fruits he loves. He sometimes does not eat my food because he knows he needs to go and buy some more the next day, to replace the fruits/veggies he ate.

I feel it is not fair, he deserves to eat as much fruit as me, but because of this very tight budget there is just not enough money and fruit for two people.

Also another issue I had was the quantity of fruits and veggies I eat and their total cost. His mother is almost always upset with me for eating so many fruits and veggies, as I sometimes eat from the fruits and veggies that she is buying for the whole family (though I still leave some for them too). My husband is also concerned that he is spending too much money just for my food alone. Especially now in winter, when everything is more expensive.

I feel so guilty that I am causing so much trouble for him and money spending, but I do not want to change my eating into the way it was before. I told him that I’d rather eat less but still be raw vegan.

I also need to make him understand that fruits and veggies are my food for the whole day, while for him, eating a fruit or two is just a snack as he has already eaten his meal (regular diet).

It seems so hard for people to understand that for a raw vegan person, the food is made of fruits and veggies alone, as the main food source. So it is difficult to share my food if that is all I have for the day. It is like I give someone my oranges, they will get a snack, but I will be left with nothing else to eat.

Sometimes (and especially in the beginning) my husband tells me to eat normally like any other person. When I tell him that I have no food left for me if I give him my food, he is like “but there is enough food in the fridge, you could eat what the rest of us eat”. I am like “nope, that is not food for me”. And he is like “then stay hungry”. This conversation rarely happens, but it shows how difficult it is to change others’ mentality.

I have been accused of being selfish and I really do feel selfish, I mean, it is actually a selfish behavior not to share, it is not what I have been taught in church and by the Bible, it contradicts everything I believe in. But still, how do I cope with this?

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

My menu:

February 2, 2014:

- (12:55 pm) 4 large bananas (best bananas ever – so large/thick and so sweet and soft)
- (4:50 pm) 9 very small oranges
- (10 pm) salad: 1 long cucumber (200 g), 3 tomatoes, 1 long red sweet pepper (100 g)
- (11:50 pm) 4 large bananas

Energy: 1238 cals
Calorie breakdown: 91.4% carbs / 5.2% proteins / 3.4% lipids

Those first 4 large bananas were just amazing, so rich and filling and sweet. They were rather thick than very long, I could hardly open up my mouth to take a bite. They were what I call “big, fat bananas” (they are so rare to find here). I so enjoyed eating them, I was in Banana Paradise.

Today was Day 2 of my 30 day February fully raw challenge.

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

I am reading "Skinny Bitch" now and I am on Chapter 6. I must say this particular chapter just made me feel sick with disgust and I envisioned all the horrible slaughtering scenes (even though I knew about all this slaughtering and I have seen the respective movies/videos). Those quotes from the workers in slaughterhouses are so graphic that I think anyone who would read them would just stop eating animal products all at once.

It just makes me so mad and so sad at the same time - why there has to be such a thing going on for humans' pleasure of indulging into all sorts of fancy meals made of animal products? I wish I could do so much more for stopping the slaughter, but I am afraid it has gone far too long to be stopped at this point. And since those who eat animal products are far more numerous than the vegans, how could we ever stop them? They do not even want to stop.

I reached to a point when I no longer stand seeing animal products in stores, on tv, in the house...everywhere I look there are animal products and happy people devouring them. Where is this world going to? I mean, don't they have compassion and love within their hearts? I will just say that they are just ignorant and going with the flow...

I was thinking...what kind of person would even work in a slaughterhouse and live with it? What kind of person would kill so many animals every single day without the fear of God and with a clean conscience? Don't they have families, wives, kids? And this leads me to my next question: how can their wives and kids live with animal murderers?

Everything is just revolting....and so sad...this does not mean human evolution at all...

I can not just close my eyes to this...but what is to be done?

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

My menu:

February 3, 2014:

- (10 am) 9 very small oranges
- (12:10 pm) 3 small bananas and 2 large bananas
- (3:30 pm) 10 very small oranges
- (5:45 pm) 3 Romanian red apples
- (8:55 pm) 2 large bananas

Energy: 1844 cals
Calorie breakdown: 92.4% carbs / 5% proteins / 2.6% lipids

I did not plan to eat apples, but I entered the kitchen and I saw them and I craved eating some. I ate only 3 because I can’t deal with more apples in one sitting. They were great, sweet and juicy.

Eating this way makes me so very happy. When I wake up in the morning I can not wait to enjoy some ripe bananas or some sweet oranges. Even these apples made me happy, they left me feeling that life is good.

Still, I must limit/remove my apple intake because I felt a bit bloated later on in the evening. Apples do not sit well with me lately.

I do not know if Chronometer refers to peeled fruits or to fruits with peel. I just add the fruits like they are, with peel, and I am sure that my ratios are not accurate, but at least they are a reference point.

Today was Day 3 of my 30 day February fully raw challenge.

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

I wanted to share again Dr. Doug Graham’s advice to me:

As I said before, I used to make raw salt-free sauerkraut. He told me that sauerkraut is more like rotten cabbage. On some other occasion he said that if you are in a cabbage field and you are loading your truck with fresh cabbage and you suddenly run into a spoiled rotten cabbage, you wouldn’t be like “wow, look at this rotten cabbage, it’s so yummy, let’s eat it”…

As you already know, another dilemma I had was about frozen green peas. Though I never ate fresh raw ones, I just loved the frozen (and obviously blanched) ones. I used to first remove their transparent skins and then eat them simple with tomatoes. Dr. Doug Graham said that they are questionably raw and that I get to decide how big of a deal is to me (so it depends on me how much I would compromise on a raw vegan diet). That was very good advice.

I also told him about my health situation, and he said that there are no contra-indicatons to healthful living and that my best nutritional and dietary approach is 811rv, for sure.

I also got great advice from Nora Lenz, whom I admire and who inspired me a lot in the beginning. This is what she told me:

”Eating nothing but fruits and greens is something that takes time for the body to adapt to. Many times when this is attempted too quickly, the person ends up going back to their old way of eating, because they find the new foods so unsatisfying […]. "Cravings" are withdrawal from addiction, and grains are very addictive, no matter how they are prepared.

That being said, when a person is suffering from a life-disrupting illness like you are, it is best to clean the diet up quickly for a short period of time, maybe 2-4 months, and then go back and add some transitional foods back in (I'm thinking of things like cooked vegetables of all kinds, including potatoes and sweet tubers like yams and carrots). Then you can gradually move back toward optimal, taking a year or a few years to get there. This gives the body a better starting point than if you started transitioning gradually without the short period of optimal eating. It's just one strategy that can be used.

In the meantime, if it were me, I would not allow a diagnosis to dictate the decision of whether to go ahead with surgery. I think you are wise to aspire to avoid it altogether, and I do think it is possible to reverse your condition, given your relative youth. I don't know much about osteoarthritis except that it is a degenerative disease that is caused mostly by an unhealthy diet. What you are doing is effectively removing the cause of the problem, so your body can heal itself. Since you are so young, there's every reason to expect your body will be able to reverse the damage. More than anything, I would allow the level of pain to guide the decision to have surgery.

[…] You mainly need to avoid acid-forming foods like grains of all kinds, cooked meats and pasteurized dairy. […] You could add nuts or coconuts in small quantities as well.

You will need to learn how to think independently, and not allow the opinions of others to influence you unduly. Nuts are a fine transitional food but a person can live well without them. In fact they are quite hard to digest.”

I also liked Raw Gosia’s journals, they were an inspiration to me when I started this raw vegan journey.

I must add that ever since I stopped eating those peas, my digestion improved (after experiencing lot of bloating and slow digestion and stomach pain), I have no more stomach pain, no more bloating, I feel light again.

I think indeed any legume or starchy veggie should not be eaten regularly, if not at all. I only ate frozen (again blanched) sweet yellow corn several times recently, so I did not get bad reactions from it, but I am thinking that it is also a starchy food which is better to be avoided. I have not tried raw fresh off the cob sweet corn, I might do that at least once to experience the taste. The same with raw fresh green peas, I would like to taste them at least once, just to make the difference. But I found that I’m way better off any starch/legume.

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



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/2014 08:22AM by Ela2013.

I was thinking that I feel so bad that I can not compost the banana and orange peels and the peels from cucumbers, tomatoes, etc. I was recently watching Tarah's videos and in one video she did with Ryan, he mentioned having to sneak out to compost so that no one sees them. I wish I could do that too, as I saw Freelee and Harley having a special composting area in their yard. Unfortunately, here everything just goes to garbage bins. If I were to compost the fruit peels and just put them in parks or other areas, I would get a fine. And I am the only one in the family who produces around 2 bags of compost / day (the others in the family gather that much compost in several days, but not all is from fruits/veggies like mine).

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

Today I watched Freelee’s video about what’s in a burger. It just made me burst into tears. The images she included are very graphic, with the same sad and cruel torture of animals. I am not proud of eating animal products in the past, but I am happy that I no longer do that. One person at a time…

My menu:

February 4, 2014:

- (11:50 am) 3 Romanian red apples
- (4:30 pm) 2 small bananas and 2 large bananas
- (7 pm) 8 very small oranges and 1 larger orange
- (9 pm) 2 medium bananas

Energy: 1270 cals
Calorie breakdown: 92.8% carbs / 4.5% proteins / 2.7% lipids

Today was Day 4 of my 30 day February fully raw challenge.

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

My menu:

February 5, 2014:

- (6:30 am) 3 Romanian red apples
- (11:35 am) 4 small bananas
- (2:20 pm) 10 very small oranges
- (8:40 pm) 5 oranges
- (11:55 pm) 2 large bananas

Energy: 1511 cals
Calorie breakdown: 92.5% carbs / 4.9% proteins / 2.6% lipids

The other night I had a very bad night, I went to bed at 11:30 pm and at 3:35 am I just couldn’t sleep. I just stayed in bed until 6:30 am and then ate those 3 apples, which made me feel dizzy and kinda sick. I went back to bed at 7:30 am and I had to wake up at 8:30 as the postman came with some money from my ex-boss (he owed me the money for my leave of absence due to my illness).

So yesterday morning I felt completely like a zombie, just like I was up all night in the club. I also had trouble falling asleep as I kept having those images of slaughtered animals. Then I kept thinking of how I could help them.

So I guess I will never go to bed when I am not ready to sleep and I will just end the day when I really feel sleepy. This is what has worked for me so far and this is what I am going to do from now on.

Also I am not going to eat apples again, they really do not taste that good to me anymore.

My husband gave me some bad news yesterday morning – he no longer has money to support me and my food (he just has some money he is not willing to spend as he keeps it for real emergencies), so I will have to base only on my social health insurance to get my food. Which is like $100/month, which I am sure is not enough (considering that I have to follow my treatment this summer, when I go to the seaside for different procedures like massage and hydrotherapy and electric therapy). So I guess my budget is even tighter, and my food intake will be accordingly. I will have faith and I hope I can make it until spring when here fruits/veggies are cheaper.

This was Day 5 of my 30 day February fully raw challenge.

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

I was thinking that some people are so fake.
They say that they love animals, but they kill wild animals and domestic animals. Then they teach their children to love animals, but they feed them dead animals.
And then they make animal toys like teddy bears and cute donkeys and little chicken and ducks, but they enjoy eating all those fancy animal products.
They develop the technologies for ageing ham and bacon and game, they develop technologies for producing aged blue cheese, but they are in fact eating rotten meat and moldy cheese.

They come up with all those glamorous advertisements with cute purple cows which are so good and give us milk to make chocolate from, with cute fluffy little chicken that float in the bathtub making kids happy to take a bath, with other kids having a “yoghurt moustache”, saying that “a yoghurt a day keeps the doctor away”.
They do not tell in those advertisements about the reality behind them – that the cows are not happy and they are bathing in their own blood, that the fluffy male chicken are thrown in the garbage bin alive as they are useless, that the “yoghurt a day” is not the same with “an apple a day” and it actually brings the doctor closer.

We live in a world of lies, of deceiving and fooling people, of silent and sick games that play with our minds and our health.
We are fed garbage and we accept it even if most of us know it.
Those of us who really care for our health are starting to do something about it, but it is going to be a while until some changes take place.
We should all take a stand and make a point against all these, we should reaffirm our condition as human and intelligent beings and demand for justice.

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

My menu:

February 6, 2014:

- (11:10 am) 7 oranges
- (2:45 pm) 5 bananas
- (6:10 pm) 7 oranges
- (9:20 pm) 3 bananas

Energy: 1159 cals
Calorie breakdown: 91.9% carbs / 5.5% proteins / 2.6% lipids

This was Day 6 of my 30 day February fully raw challenge.

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

This morning my dear friend told me that her mother passed away last night.
She had Alzheimer in the final stage, she could not even take her medication anymore.
She was a very good woman, she died in peace, and very calm.

May God take care of her…

It would help a lot if you could send a little prayer for her in your thoughts.

Thank you.

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

Yesterday, especially in the evening, I felt dizzy and ligh-headed, kinda spacey, like I was floating or something (like I was taking drugs). I went to bed at 10:30 pm and slept until 9:45 am. But today I still feel dizzy and like floating. I hope I can make it this afternoon to my friend's gathering and then tomorrow at the funeral. I also had quite a headache, and I was feeling colder than usual, the same as today.

My menu:

February 7, 2014:

- (11:50 am) 5 bananas
- (1:10 pm) 7 oranges
- (3:45 pm) 3 bananas
- (22:30 pm) 5 oranges

Energy: 1399 cals
Calorie breakdown: 92.1% carbs / 5.1% proteins / 2.7% lipids

This was Day 7 of my 30 day February fully raw challenge.

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



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/08/2014 11:47AM by Ela2013.

Yesterday, the gathering at my friends’s home was so beautiful.
Today, the service and the funeral was also beautiful, it was the first funeral I attended and it impressed and moved me so much.

Today at the gathering after the funeral we went to the eating hall belonging to the church next to the cemetery. I sat down at a table with friends from the church and with another good friend of mine. Our dear priests said the blessings and there was traditional Romanian food.

Before going to the eating hall I talked to my dear friend and told her that I won't be eating anything and that I just wanted to be there for her. She was ok with this and I just drank a lot of sparkling water the whole afternoon. They did have vegetarian/vegan cooked options, like fish instead of steak, or veggie soup, or just side dishes like steamed potatoes, and also pickles, but I prefered not to eat anything. The boy who was serving asked me if I was dry fasting so that he would't tempt me with vegetarian food. He was so thoughtful.

I was asked by my friends why I didn't eat and what I was eating everyday. I told them the truth, they were very ok with it. One of them said that he could not eat only vegan foods, let alone raw vegan. He was so cute. He was like: "you don't eat meat? not even fish? what do you eat?". I was like: plenty of fruits and veggies, nuts/seeds, there's plenty of food and I still live, walk, breathe." We were also joking but they were interested to hear what I was eating on a daily basis. Others said that it was very healthy not to eat animal products. So I felt great and comfortable sitting at the table with them - they are good people and I like them, we are like a small comunity of friends in our church. We had a lovely afternoon, we talked, we laughed, while they enjoyed their meals and I was sipping my sparkling water.

My menu:

February 8, 2014:

- (11 am) 5 oranges
- (1:35 pm) 4 bananas
- (3 pm) 5 oranges
- (23:20 pm) 5 oranges

Energy: 1036 cals
Calorie breakdown: 91.7% carbs / 5.8% proteins / 2.5% lipids

This was Day 8 of my 30 day February fully raw challenge.

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

My menu:

February 9, 2014:

- (4:20 pm) 7 bananas
- (7 pm) 5 oranges
- (9:20 pm) 4 Golden apples

Energy: 1060 cals
Calorie breakdown: 93.2% carbs / 4.1% proteins / 2.7% lipids

This was Day 9 of my 30 day February fully raw challenge.

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

My menu:

February 10, 2014:

- (11 am) 1 large Romanian red apple
- (2 pm) 9 oranges
- (4 pm) 2 oranges
- (9:45 pm) salad: 5 tomatoes (790 gr), 3 long red peppers (390 gr), 1 small green bell pepper (82 gr), 1 long cucumber (260 gr) (the cost for making this salad was $3.70)

Energy: 926.5 cals
Calorie breakdown: 87.2% carbs / 8.2% proteins / 4.6% lipids

As I went to the veggie market yesterday, nothing looked appealing to me – I wanted to get some greens, but spinach and lettuce were kinda wilted. So I went to the supermarket and I got the ingredients for this salad. The salad was very tasty and filling.

This was Day 10 of my 30 day February fully raw challenge.

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

My menu:

February 11, 2014:

- (11 am) 5 bananas
- (2 pm) 5 oranges
- (4:30 pm) 3 bananas
- (8:30 pm) 6 oranges

Energy: 1215 cals
Calorie breakdown: 92.1% carbs / 5.2% proteins / 2.7% lipids

This was Day 11 of my 30 day February fully raw challenge.

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

My menu:

February 12, 2014:

- (11:30 am) 5 bananas
- (3:50 pm) 6 bananas
- (7:10 pm) 5 oranges
- (10:30 pm) salad: 7 tomatoes (700 g), 1 long cucumber (284 g), 1 long green pepper (124 g), 1 long sweet red pepper (132 g)

Energy: 1415 cals
Calorie breakdown: 92.5% carbs / 4.5% proteins / 2.9% lipids

The calorie breakdown doesn't include the salad, as Cronometer didn't work this morning. The salad was great.

This was Day 12 of my 30 day February fully raw challenge.

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

I am very happy with some cosmetics I ordered online - shampoo, shower gel and unrefined shea butter. I got a present too - a handmade vegan organic soap with aloe vera and spirulina. I already tested them (except the soap) and they are great, all handmade, vegan and organic. They smell wonderful and they are very efficient. They contain oils such as: wheat germ, grapefruit, avocado, jojoba, petitgrain, olive, coconut; they also have shea butter, cocoa butter, mango butter.

I also stopped using regular toothpaste and now I am using a powder for dental care that has clay, menthol, sodium bicarbonate and organic sage, and it is also very efficient, no annoying foam and a light mint flavor.

My menu:

The energy breakdown for the salad on February 12:

Energy: 225.8 cals
Calorie breakdown: 77.5% carbs / 13.1% proteins / 9.3% lipids

February 13, 2014:

- (12 pm) 7 bananas
- (1:30 pm) 5 oranges
- (3:20 pm) 5 oranges
- (9 pm) 10 small raw carrots (270 gr)
- (11 pm) 5 oranges

Energy: 1462 cals
Calorie breakdown: 91.7% carbs / 5.5% proteins / 2.8% lipids

This was Day 13 of my 30 day February fully raw challenge.

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