Thriving

Hey another Saturday- that means resting, pottering in the kitchen, buying food and supplies, cleaning the house and soaking nuts and sprouts etc.

It also means carbo loading for a big run tomorrow.

I have just read Brendan Braziers “Thrive” vegan athletes diet book and although a lot of the stuff in it is what I either already did before going vegan or now do, there are a whole lot of distinctions that I think will make a huge difference to my performance and recovery.

I have great recovery.  My trainer and I often think I wont be able to move the next day and yet I end up barely stiff so I must be doing something right.

I have always believed that the ‘food pyramid’ was completely off- honestly, grains at the bottom? I havent really eaten bread in 18 months and have been so much healthier for it.  Ditto pasta which I view as wall paper paste, cake, rice and most of what passes for staple food.

The bottom of my food pyramid has been cruciferous vegetables for quite some time.  My perfect breakfast was steamed Brussel sprouts and balsamic vinegar… I know, weird but so yummy.

Anything the rest of the family put on rice or pasta I put on fresh baby spinach or cabbage.  My other fav meal was omelettes and veges on a bed of greens.

So my new animal product free diet involves substituting seeds and nuts for meat, eggs and cheese- no problem really.

Brendan’s book has some great recipes that involve soaked nuts and seeds and has lots of information on acidity and alkalinity which is very important in terms of recovery and performance.   It has specific recipes for post workout drinks and explains the science behind the ratios.  It even has recipes for sports gels so must get myself a gel pouch to carry some in.

I think I might have even got M to come over to the ‘dark’ side.  He rides for several hours at a go and at his top speed most of the time. I made him scrambled eggs on essene bread and a green smoothie (chocolate and spirulina and spinach) for lunch and his dinner was home made wheat free flat breads with falafels and various salady fillings.

I had left over pizza and salad with avocado. I am going to eat a lot of tahini balls later on with a nice cup of rooibos tea.

I also spent some time boosting the muesli that the rest of the family eats with puffed amaranth, dates, LSA, and dried fruit. Haha, they will never notice… damn it they will eat healthy food.

Wish me luck for tomorrow I run 28km… slowly but still, it’s a long way. It always freaks me out before I do it and then when I get back it seems like the most normal thing in the world.  Each week I run 1 km more than the last… I am running the NY marathon in November so should be in great shape by then.  Next week I will be starting a 10 week training program to step up my running speed so I have speed and distance- yeah baby, I want it all.

see ya

Friday night is Pizza night

So for a third day running Melbourne suffers 40 plus degree heat… we are all a bit bored with it and getting cranky from lack of sleep, well I am anyway.

When life hands you global warming it’s time to get sun drying so I sliced up some capsicum, celery, and mushrooms along with the ever present tomatoes and put them out on trays.

Then I concocted a pizza base that went like this

Pizza base

2 cups sprouted mung beans

1 cup ground linseed

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1/2 cup almonds

Nutritional yeast/miso/salt

1 tsp agave nectar

water to get the right consistancy

Blend adding water as needed to get a thick paste.

Spread on baking paper in the vague shape of a pizza base and bake in the sun, turning once to dry evenly- about 6 hours

To make the pizza I blended the veges that I dried out roughly with some dried italian herbs and spread the thick paste on the pizza base.

I then chopped up an avocado and put that on top.

Then I covered it with cling film (probably toxic and evil) and put it in the fridge for 2 hours. This allowed the base to soften and absorb the pizza flavor from the veggies.

I could only eat half of one as it is pretty nutrient dense and I had it with a rocket and spinach salad with an olive oil and apple cider vinegar dressing.

Friday night is pizza night!

29…

Hey it was another scorching day in Melbourne so to make the most of it I decided to let the sun “cook” some of my dinner for me.

Experimental Crackers

1 1/2 cups almond meal left over from making ‘milk’

1 cup sprouted wheat

1 cup of linseeds

1/2 cup sesame seeds

1/2 cup sprouted mung beans

1 cup sunflower seeds

Miso paste or nutritional yeast

macrobiotic salt

water to get the everything to blend well

Pop everything in the food processor and blend well, the linseeds will be whole still and I left the sunflower seeds pretty chunky.

Spread the paste on baking paper and put out in the sun under a net until dry, took about 6 hours.

Hey presto a giant cracker which breaks up into nice little crackers easily and tastes great or as the children said “tastes like normal food”

I ate mine dipped in cold thai style coconut green soup which I had left over from earlier in the week.

Since I havent eaten bread in a year and a half- I cant tolerate complex carbs, this was lovely and of course the sprouting of the wheat makes it easier to digest.

Tomorrow is going to be hot again- what to “bake”?

4 weeks Woot!!

The 4 week mark!

I know one day this will seem a minor milestone but often you have to do something for a month to really know that you are doing it and I feel that raw is pretty integrated into my life now.

Today was 43 degrees C and I was lucky enough not to have to go anywhere or do anything.

I did get up at 5 am to run 14km because thats the kind of thing you have to do when you are a long distance runner- mid week runs of 12+ km. This weekends run should be 28km and hopefully the heatwave will be over by then.

Running in the dark and the perfect stillness of the morning gives you the impression you own the world- there it all is and not a soul to have to share it with… the silvery sea, the glowing moon and then all too soon the sun is up and the world stirs itself from sleep to go about its day.

I run to meditate, to commune, to be… I love it

Today was too hot to eat so we all picked at frozen fruit and salad all day… I often feel a bit weird if I dont have at least one proper meal, like I could pick all day and not be satisfied. I think I am just bored with the heat and cant really do much about it.

I am looking forward to a less restrictive diet in 2 weeks when I allow myself a bit of cooked food- mushrooms in particular as raw they just dont do it for me.

I have sprouted some wheat but am not sure if it is hard or soft so what to do with it? Rejuvalac or essene crackers? I really dont know- time to google I think.

See ya

Day 27

Today was another hot day and we had to do a quick trip to the vege shop for supplies before it got really cookin’.

I filled the freezer with slices  of pineapple which were fab when the temperature didnt get below  25 degrees Celsius  in the evening.

I had another coffee today which I know isnt raw but I found a beautiful organic fair trade one that totally blows my hair back so had it with stevia and almond milk.

The rest of todays food was fruit, smoothies, salad and oh thats it… and frozen fruit.

I still have some raw sprouted humus that I made the other day and it is spicy and delicious and a great accompaniment to cucumber and carrot.  Hot days call for simple food and lots of water.
That’s it for today… I am hoping my “Thrive” vegan athlete book arrives soon so I have some new recipes.  I have been checking out Brendan Brazier online and he seems pretty cool. I am interested to see his approach as I have a specific dietary requirement being a long distance runner and if I mess up my nutrition things get bad quickly.

Tomorrow is supposed to be hotter than today… oh joy

26

It was a public holiday today- Australia Day. I am not actually Australian and so I cant tell you exactly what it is all about but it seems to celebrate having a barbecue and eating meat products. errrr…… right on
So it is 40 degrees or some such mad temperature so out go the Roma tomatoes to sun dry and a bunch of coriander that I wont have time to use before it gets icky so best to dry it.
I have been doing a lot of research into the types of dehydrators on the market and have decided that the type with rectangular drawer/racks are the best kind and of course the most expensive. Dear universe, can I please have…
Today I decided I would like a coffee despite it not being raw and had it with stevia and almond milk and it was really very nice.
Quite suddenly it was lunchtime before I had even had breakfast so I thought something substantial was in order.
I made nori rolls with sunflower seed spread and cucumber and WASABI… I love wasabi.
Dinner was salad while everyone ate the various barbecued meats and desert was chocolate and strawberries.
I think I need to find someone else doing a raw food diet to get some inspiration… and some support

25

Sunday, run, bike, swim, feldenkrais, fall in a heap…

I got up reasonably early and was out on the road for my long run by 6.30 am.

I love how empty the streets are and how I have the place to myself until I reach the sea.

Soon the one or two joggers and bikers turns into pelotons and groups and I m surrounded by other crazy people who think sweating early on a Sunday is a good idea. There is a certain camaraderie between us, we all pretty much gave up our wild Saturday nights in favor of carb loading and sleep so we could do our best out on the road today.

I personally ran about 27km which being a long slow run took me about 2 and a half hours.

I then spent a good 2 hours soaking my legs and icing my knees while drinking recovery drinks and smoothies before some quick house work and then off on my bike to the gym to do feldenkrais and then a swim.

The swim was lovely and I sat in the salt water hot pool and the sauna for a while.

The homeward journey should have been after a refuel but I neglected to bring any snacks with me so ended up having to do it starving… up hills… on a single speed bike … in a head wind- this head wind seems to follow me regardless of which direction I go, I guess thats the bonus of riding along by the sea.

So now I am scrounging for something to eat- left over soup, maybe. Salad, possibly. Need nuts and sundried toms while I think. Wish my amino acid drink said where they get all those amino acids and protein from. They dont even say what the herbs are… just “contains herbs” – good on you Musashi, I like a bit more info than that.

I think I am just going to fall in a heap now and perhaps put a glass of red wine to good use before passing out in a coma around 9pm.

bye

Day 24

It has been a lovely day where I dont feel like I did very much at all and it was the perfect weather for it.

I made a cherry and pineapple protein smoothie for myself and M who came in after a 2 hour mountainous bike ride and sat under the apricot tree and read for a while. Then I pottered in the garden tying up tomato plants and marveling at the tiny tomatoes that are growing despite the fact we are in a drought and can barely water them.

I thought about the long comfortable day stretched out ahead of me and suddenly I got inspired to head to the gym on my bike to do some weights.  Masochist!

It is about 11km to the gym and there are a few hills which you really notice on a single speed bike and then because we are by the sea there was a pretty full on head wind… in every direction I went- how does that work?

I did my weights workout which is a new one and therefore still at the point where I cant quite finish all 4 reps of 10… as soon as I can my trainer ups the weights or changes the routine. It took me a while to get that the point of it is to stretch your capabilities, not be good at doing it. Sometimes I am a bit of a der.

I came home starving and ate a bunch of tahini balls- no I will never get sick of them and now I am making dinner.

The recipe is… and I just made it up

Thai style green soup.

1 head brocolli

4 pieces celery

1 handful baby spinach

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons dried coconut

handful of coriander

1 chilli

1 tsp agave nectar

Blend with water as necessary until smooth, warm and serve.

So very spicy and yummy

Day 23

Today was one of those relaxing days where anything seems possible, even stealing a few moments with a good book.

The sun was shining and I did spend some time under the apricot tree reading Malcolm Gladwells “Blink”. I am one of those privileged people who has a backyard and enough space to grow trees and veges. I currently have 12 foot high sunflowers that track the passage of the sun across the sky with their giant nodding heads.

I was inspired by the heat of the day to sundry more tomatoes to a semidried state- their flavor was fantastic, concentrated and intense and with the addition of macrobiotic salt, olive oil and basil they seemed to carry the essence of hot summer days as I ate them. Utterly gorgeous!

Todays breaky was a pineapple and cherry smoothie with all the usual stuff- protein, LSA, almond milk kefir…

Lunch was fruit and tahini balls and I finished the amazing chocolate icecream experiment.

I took a salad with me to a friends house as we were going to be spending an evening chatting and I didnt want us to have to worry about what I could and couldnt eat. It was really nice and had enough interesting stuff in it to feel like gourmet dinner.

the salad recipe was:

1 big handful of rocket

2 big handfuls of baby spinach leaves

2 cups of mung bean sprouts

1/2 a cucumber sliced thinly

1 cup of semi dried tomato

20 sun dried strawberries

10 brasil nuts chopped

10 almonds chopped

a hand full of sunflower seeds

mix together with nuts on top and drizzle tahini dressing on it (we had corriander in our dressing)

I was pretty pleased with it.

And thats all folks!

Day 22

The thing I am finding interesting about eating raw is that I really notice the quality of produce in a way that was less obvious when I wasnt. I always liked good fresh food but somehow since I have been preparing raw food I have developed a more discerning eye and indeed hand for noticing the quality of food.
I also look at the labels on the few processed things I buy, you know, like tahini, and I am much more hard line about what I would find acceptable in food.
This is crossing over to the food I buy for my family who dont want to go raw or vegan. I was always fussy about preservatives and colours and am even more so now.
I wanted to buy a jar of sundried tomatoes from the supermarket and there were so many brands to choose from but they all had so many preservatives I literally stood there looking from one jar to another for 10 minutes wondering why it had to be so difficult.
Since today was about 30 degrees out and roma tomatoes are plentiful I sliced up about a kilo of them and lay them on trays with some macrobiotic salt and some virgin olive oil in the sun. I had to weigh down the nets that cover them as there was a very strong hot wind, so perfect tomato drying weather.
I had seen on this blog a picture of dehydrated strawberry slices so I gave those a go too and they turned out so beautifully.
I spent the day baking and making food for everyone else although I did get a chance to make tahini balls for myself and I snacked on fruit all day- frozen grapes… they are divine!
While I was clearing out the freezer I found some chocolate icecream I had made while experimenting with the chocolate avocado pie and OMG it was amazing. I actually had to stop myself from eating the whole container full. Now I will have to trawl through my posts and see if there was a recipe or it is as I fear an unrecorded experiment.
I promised myself to write everything down from now on because DAMN that was good.
My other fave thing at the moment is tahini dressing on anything.

Recipe goes like this:

Tahini dressing
1/4 cup tahini
juice of 1 lemon
1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil
water to thin if neccessary
optional- chilli, basil, or corriander
Mix everything until creamy and pour over everything you eat
On that note I will leave you.
see ya

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