I've been almost 100% raw for about 2 weeks now. I've only eaten non raw when I've been invited to dinner and didn't want to offend the cook. But I've been lucky and the cooks have all made brown rice and veggies so it wasn't too bad. Anyway, I feel I'm struggling now not because I want SAD food but because I feel weak and it's getting harder to run my 5k a day. Any advice on a daily menu plan would be terrific!

Here's yesterday's food (beware, had a bit of non raw):

dates stuffed with almonds and dipped in honey and sesame seeds
pomegrante
hibiscus tea (I'm sure it had sugar
half of a meat samboosak (OMG it couldn't be much worse, deep fried pastry!!!!)
green smoothie (spinach, banana, mango, flax seed)
salad (spinach, lettuce, cabbage, celery with pine nut and dill dressing)
1/2 cup of raw oatmeal with raisins
1/4 cup white rice eeek!
1/2 large bowl of popcorn

Ok so yesterday wasn't so great but I felt so hungry and the rice smelled so good, that is until I ate it and it was too salty. Today no non-raw. I've got to get into the kitchen and plan some food for later so I won't be eating popcorn or worse again!

Here are 15 raw food tips by Karen Knowler that I thought might help [karenknowler.typepad.com].

Also, there is one on endless energy at [karenknowler.typepad.com]. Just scroll down to the August 31st article.

Congrats on eating more raw food! That is an important step for your health.

had an incredibly emotional day yesterday. Had a huge fight with dh and spent most of the day in tears. I still don't feel ok today, kind of down and withdrawn. Dh apologized and I'm not upset with him anymore but the fight seemed to unleash some pent up negative emotions that I just can't seem to shake. He thinks I'm still mad and took off somewhere in the car without telling me or taking his phone. So that has me a bit upset and worried at the moment.

Anyway, yesterday's food:

dates dipped in honey and sesame seeds and stuffed with almond (finished the last of them yesterday thankfully)
pomegrante
orange juice
green smooothie (spinach, banana, mango, flax seed)
small salad (romaine, spinach, cabbage celery with sesame seed dressing) was horrible so threw most of it away
half bowl of popcorn

I ate popcorn again! I thought I'd broken the habit but I had such an emotional day that I turned to my comfort food popcorn. I wish I could find a raw alternative to popcorn!

Wow! Just did two meditations from the Orin site. Really powerful, I recommend them to everyone. I'm trying to get over the stress from the summer and my friend recommended the site. I did the clearing blockages and joy meditations. I really need to put a lot more effort into feeling positive again. Before the summer I was doing really well but got derailed over the summer. I'll just have to work harder at it.

Yesterday's food:

black dates from Medinah (almost like a cross between a giant raisin and a date)
pomegrantes
orange juice
green smoothie (spinach, banana, mango, flax seed)
raw oatmeal (oat groats, dates,raisins)
raw hummus with carrot sticks (yummy from ani's cookbook)
the blasted popcorn again!!! had a huge stomach ache after no wonder!

Today I'm invited to break the fast (it's ramadhan here) so I'm planning on taking a green smoothie and what's left of the hummus with some carrot sticks. The hostess should have dates as those are the traditional way to break the fast. I think my energy levels have been really low because of fasting in ramadhan. I know it's certainly taking a toll on my running. Sigh, I was doing 5.5 k a day with hills at the end but now I'm really struggling to keep up 5.3 k with no hills. I worked so hard to get to where I am right now that it worries me that I'm going backwards instead of forwards. I guess I'll just have to hang in there. On a positive note, I can get my size 6 trousers on again, although they're still too tight to wear in public. But hey, I can get them on and zipped without laying down on the bed!!

Well, the past two days have not been 100%. That's disappointing. I think what happened is that I was invited out, managed to eat only raw at the invite but then came home starving and ate non-raw. I really have to work on not letting myself get too hungry. Interesting observation, one day I had veggie sushi and immediately after eating it my nose got stuffed up. It's still stuffy today. It was suprising how fast the mucus set in after eating non-raw. The other thing is yesterday, the day after the sushi, I was able to run my usual 5.5k with hills. Don't know if the two are related or not.

Here's yesterday's food list:

dates mushed into balls and rolled in sesame seeds
pomegrante
green smoothie (spinach, mango, banana, flax seed)
more dates of various types (rolled in nuts or coconut, dipped in honey and stuffed with almond)
really sad anemic looking salad at party
1 Tbl of mutabbel (eggplant, garlic, olive oil, yogurt dip)
6 stuffed grape leaves
2 Tbl corn and bean salad
2 Tbl white rice
handful of cashews

I am eating soooo many dates this month. Once Ramadhan is over I don't think I'll be able to even look at another date. Dates are the traditonal food for Ramadhan so they're in abundance everywhere.

My weight has gone up about 2 kilos this week. I think it might be because I'm due to get my period. I certainly hope so, I want the scale to go down not up!

Yesterday I had a great run. Went 6k plus hills. I could have gone further but didn't want to overdo it. I hope today's run will go as well. Tonight hubby and I are hosting a dinner for 60 at a hotel. I made sure there would be lots of salad options on the buffet so I hope I'll do well.

Yesterday's food:

dates rolled in sesame seeds
pomegrantes
lemonade (had sugar but at least it was homemade not from a can)
green smoothie (spinach, mango, banana, flax seed)
big salad with romaine, spinach, a local green called rigla (watercress maybe), carrots and a macadamia nut dressing
apple
popcorn (dang it! my dehydrator is coming in a couple of weeks with my furniture shipment I'm hoping I can get off of popcorn if I have something else to eat that's crunchy and salty, celery just doesn't cut it. Maybe a flax cracker or dehydrated marinated mushrooms)

Been so busy this past week that I haven't had a chance to get over here. I had one dinner invite after another. That made staying 100% really hard but I did manage to stay away from wheat and sugar, yeah for me. Yesterday I did really well, only a bit of grilled cheese on a salad at a restaurant.

Yesterday's food:

5 dates
green smoothie (spinach, mango, banana, flax seeds)
3 figs
dried mango
pineapple heart pie soooooo good, recipe from Matt Amsden's RAWvolution
green salad with grilled halloumi cheese

The pineapple pie was delicious, almost seemed to decadent to be good for you. I ended up with a migraine headache a while after eating two pieces of the pie. I'm not sure if it was a reaction to the nuts or something else. I'm planning on eating more of the pie today so I'll see if I react and then I'll know for sure. I really hope it was something else that I reacted to because that pie is sooooooo good! Looking at my food from yesterday, it could have been too much sugar. I know I react to sugar and wheat so that's a possibilty. My friend brought me dried mango from South Africa and it's really tasty. I was munching on that while making the pie. I know that dried fruit isn't so good for you and it's not something I ususally eat but since it was a gift and was so yummy....

sounds like your on the road to raw. Keep up the work your doing great. Eat more greens it will help and watch your calorie intake so you have enough energy for the running.

Thanks for the encouragement pampam. Yesterday went pretty well, probably because I didn't go out lol. I've got another dinner tonight for a charity so it's going to be a culinary minefield lol.

Here's yesterday's food:

3 dates
green smoothie (spinach, mango, banana, flax seed)
4 date balls rolled in sesame seeds
shake made with banana, almond milk and carob powder
piece of pineapple heart pie from yesterday
raw hummus and carrot sticks
bowl of popcorn

I felt sick after eating the popcorn, surprise surprise. I've got to break the habit. I'm really hoping once I get my dehydrator I can make some crackers to fulfill my salty, crunchy, snacky need. I didn't react after eating the pie last night so I'm thinking the headache from the night before might have been due to too much sugar via the dried mango. I'll be eating more pie today, it's sooo good. I froze it so it would last, although I had a dream that I ate the whole pie in one day, eeek!

I ran 5.5k last night with hills and I've managed to up my kph by .3 which is a big step for me as I tend to be a slow runner. I'm working more now on speed than distance. I'm pretty happy with my speed increase. I've sped up by 1 kph since June. It was rough at first but now it's easy sailing.

Today on the scale I'm down to 63.6 kilos. Yeah for me. In pounds that's like 139.92 I'm finally in the 130s lol. I've been visualizing myself in a size 6 skirt that I have. I want to be in it by New Year's. I can get it on now but it's super duper skin tight so I've got some more work to do.

Well, that's it for now.

Ok yesterday was a total bust. I'm not even going to post what I ate because this is supposed to be about raw food and yesterday was totally off the chart. I haven't eaten crap like that in a long time. I'd really been craving certain cooked foods for a while and yesterday I just thought what the heck and went for it. Of course I immediately regretted all that was eaten. But hey, today is a new day! I'm planning on having my green smoothie and some dates for breaking the fast. Then I'm invited to a party so that is going to be a minefield that will have to be negotiated very carefully. I've signed up for the raw divas 7 day detox. I think it starts Sat. I hope that will help give me the push I need. Well, that's it for today.

Been there, done that! Glad to here you are starting up again! Let us know how the party goes.

Maybe you were detoxing certain cooked foods and that made you crave them.