Good Morning America

I got up in the middle of the night to watch history being made as the first African American president of the United States was sworn in- It totally rocked!

Now there is someone who believes in personal responsibility and the ability of the individual and the community to make change for the better… even if those changes are hard work at first.

The small changes in my life are beginning to feel more normal and it would be weird now to want to eat a lot of the food I used to eat every day. I think because one of the reasons I am eating this way is to develop a more compassionate way of living- both compassionate to myself and the world around me it gives me the impetus to carry on. If I had just been looking for weight loss or more energy I don’t know if I would have persevered (I dont weigh much and I am already hard to keep up with).

I had a bit of fun last night experimenting with both mature coconut and young coconut. I blended the ‘milk’ and flesh of the young coconut and it made a great electrolyte drink when I came in from my bike ride.

I then blended the flesh from the mature coconut with carob, cacao, agave nectar, almond milk and cinnamon to see if I could make a quick energy food that I could use before and after workouts since I feel a bit low energetically at the moment. I stuck it in the freezer to see what that did to it and the answer this morning is not much… it doesnt really freeze. Tastes ok, I wont be eating like a lot of it or anything but it does the trick pre workout.

I might blend some of it with avocado to get some more fat with it and also to smooth out the grainy texture.

I am not convinced that eating something that has to be imported from Thailand fits the bill of eating compassionately- it surely has a greater carbon footprint than local produce. Is that worse than say eating a local honey? I know vegans dont eat honey because they dont believe animal or indeed insects were put on earth to serve us but I figure the bees can bugger off if they are unhappy and they spend their days outdoors in the sunshine so a bit of a grey area with me.

Compassion is a broad and personal filter to apply to a diet and I dont want to draw too many hard lines without good reason. Would I eat eggs if I personally knew the chicken was happy and kept in ideal circumstances? I guess so and that leads me to wonder at where my personal philosophy will lead me. It is easy to say I’m a … and put yourself in a box. It is harder to develop your own sense of who you are and what you stand for. I think I am up for the challenge though.

See ya tomorrow

Day 20

Sadly I have nothing to tell you today except that I am ravenously hungry and have a massive headache along with a weird pulsing pain along my leg.

I have had 2 protein drinks and a massive green salad with sunflower seeds and the ever present mung beans and I feel so hungry- usually I would have a bit of dark chocolate and that would sort me out until dinner- I have a feldenkrais class, a swim and a bike ride to do yet today and I rode in to work from home which is about 11km. Crap.

If you have ever run or cycled and ‘bonked’ you’ll know why I hate to mess up my nutrition when I have exercise to do. There is nothing worse than the feeling of having no energy and being powerless to do anything about it.

hoping that I wont need the sports gel I have in my bag but good to know it is there if I am halfway home and run out of fuel.

I didnt end up making crackers last night so will investigate tonight if I have the energy.

Dinner will be leftover soup from last night, made it with too much garlic though (sorry Diana)

see y’all

Day 19

After such a big day yesterday I wasnt sure how I would feel this morning but I am pretty well rested and not too stiff in the knees. I started this morning with a simple fruit smoothie with sadly far too much flax seed in it and it made it very very thick. Bleh… The pineapple and strawberries were fab though so I persevered.

My lovely lunch was spinach and rocket salad with nut cheese and the mung bean sprouts I made yesterday… I love mung beans, I could eat them at every meal. Please dont tell me they are bad for you, toxic, full of oestrogens or put hairs on your chest… I just couldnt take it!

I was thinking about food that I really like and I decided it isn’t so much cheese that I miss but specifically grilled cheese on mushrooms… never mind, when I add a little cooked food at the end of my 6 weeks I will find a vegan cheese and grill it on mushrooms and hope it does the job. Something to look forward to.

I figure that after 6 weeks being raw 80% of the time will seem like a breeze compared to this damn near 100% raw diet I have at the moment. I am getting bored with it again so it is time to learn something new like raw sprouted crackers or something- that will be the challenge for tonight.

I have been checking out dehydrators on the internet, I am going to get a small one to start with and once I figure out how to use it and what I need it to do I might be ready to get one of those bigger expensive ones from the raw food websites that have more heat control and more trays etc.

More adventures in raw food tomorrow.

Bye for now

Day 18

At 6am I went for a huge 26km run as I usually do on a Sunday. I was a bit short on energy so had my sports gel early on at the 50 minute mark and was fine from then on. I ran with the Elwood Triathlon athletes for a while as they had taken over my normal running path and I was impressed that not only do they run they swim (in the sea with the jellyfish) and they bike (while wet).
They deal with less than ideal circumstances for each leg of their race and seem to have a good time with it. I was entertaining the idea of doing a triathlon which would mean much more bike riding in my training and learning to swim in a relaxed and deliberate way rather than my messing around in water, tiring myself out quickly and not getting anywhere fast stroke.
Honestly, the only thing standing between me and swimming practice is vanity, it ruins my hair Time to get a swim cap and as I am so fond of saying to myself “suck it up princess” and get on with it.
I also did a feldenkrais class and a weights work out which has my forearms feeling like they dont totally belong to me… they are not completely under my control.
Today was an eat everything in sight day as I have about 1200 extra calories to ingest because of the run.
I had smoothies with loads of fruit, rocket salad, berries, nuts, seeds, avocado soup, chocolate date brownie, warm chocolate almond milk oh and the fermented nut cheese with miso is lovely.

The day ended with a Gin and Tonic and in bed by 9.30. Great day!

Day 17

Today was a beautiful Saturday, clear blue sky, warm but not to hot, things to do but not too busy.
I paid a visit to the green grocers and then the nut shop where I purchased some sprouting seeds- alphalpha, mung bean and wheat. I am not sure about the wheat and whether it is the kind to sprout for breadmaking and rejuvelac or not. The guy is the shop is totally unhelpful and doesnt have a clue about his stock. He does stock Australian almonds though so I go back…
Today I spent some time on the internet looking up recipes and found a couple for nut cheese that used miso so my next batch goes like this:
Nut Cheese
one cup almonds
one cup cashews
1 Tbsp Kefir whey
1 tsp Hatcho organic miso
1/4 cup water

Blend the hell out of everything until it is smooth.
Pour into a cheese cloth and press out liquid.
Wrap in cheese cloth and let it sit for 24-36 hours.
Cheesy surprise!

Today I ate 4 pieces of let over frozen chocolate pie- it was like icecream. On Saturdays I carbo load for a big run on Sunday and tomorrow I will be running 26km.
In fact I just snacked all day long, drank smoothies and read my book in the sun- a perfect day!

Day 16

Keeping it simple today.

Breakfast is protein shake

Big weights work out at the gym

Lunch is greens with mungbean sprouts and sunflower seed pate

Dinner is soup- everyone else has pizza and I really wish I had a raw equivalent. I am in the mood for that kind of Friday night junk food dinner but a healthy version. I need a dehydrator NOW.

Anyhoo… soup is lovely and the most delightful green colour.

Recipe goes like this:

Broccoli soup

1/2 avocado

1 big broccoli

1 small corgette

handful of soaked cashews and almonds

salt

1 tsp hatcho miso

couple of cups of water

Blend the hell out of it until it is smooth and creamy

Warm a little and serve with fresh chives sprinkled on top.

15

I think I am the only person in the world to put on weight with the raw vegan diet!
Honestly, I weigh 50kg this morning- I weighed 48.5 last week. Could just be one of those things or it could be all the nuts
I used to live on eggs, cheese and vegetables of the low carb variety and now it is all avocados and nuts and seeds. To estimate my calorie intake for the day I will need to get online and do some hunting about. I think it must have gone over 1200 cal per day to be putting on weight. I am still running long distances and working out most days so I need a really balanced diet. I generally keep my body fat at around 16% but it was up to 17.5 % two days ago… not an exact science but this is an unsettling trend.
Still, today was M’s birthday so I got to eat my chocolate avocado pie and it was divine!
I think that the base was a bit soft because it had sat in the fridge for a day soaking up the mousse but it was still delicious. Even the kids ate it and thought it was alright. I thought it had a fabulous texture, so creamy and chocolaty… a lovely treat.

Now that I have finished the big bag of dates I bought I might just give them a rest for a while. They are too sweet for me and I think that I prefer stevia as a sweetener where possible. I think they are also contributing to getting sweet cravings whereas before on my high protein diet I didnt get them very often. For me it is a sign of blood sugar fluctuations.

I was thinking that over the weekend I should buy some blood oranges and make a granita… I could use agave to stop the mixture from setting hard… and perhaps a dash of vodka, not really going to worry about it being raw or not, obsessing is so unattractive.
My usual Granita recipe would be 3 cups juice to 1 cup sugar so I guess I would try 3 cups juice to 3/4 cup agave since it says to reduce in recipes by 25%. I will let you know how it goes.

Two Weeks

Two weeks today!

Today marks two weeks of my raw experiment and it is going pretty well.

Because we have a birthday in the family tomorrow I am going to spend today experimenting with chocolate, I know… it’s a hard job but someones gotta do it!

This is the recipe I am going to try out

Almond Crust

2 cups soaked almonds

1 cup dates

Blend in food processor until like a crumb base, press in to pie pan.

Chocolate mousse Filling

2 diced avocados

1/4 cup agave

stevia (to taste)

1/4 cup raw cacao powder

1/4 cup carob powder

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 Tbsp coconut butter

Blend until creamy and pour into dish or pie crust. Chill.

Followed the recipe and all the ingredients taste great together but the proof of the pie will be tomorrow as I will be serving it with the birthday cake so lets hope it keeps well.

Here is a top tip – once you have made your mousse dont clean the blender straight away, fill it with almond milk and a spoon full of raw cacao or as I did a sweetened cacao mix with cinnimon and a spoon full of protein powder and make a shake! It has the creamy avocado and coconut butter texture but not too much… yummy

see ya tomorrow

13

Today was one of those super hot days that Melbourne does so well.
We went out in the morning but had to be inside for the heat of the day. I took the opportunity to make some veggie burgers and sundry them a bit- it was 37 degrees out so perfect!
I also made a litre of almond milk and discovered that although my Kefir will work in almond milk eventually it will die without milk so am giving it a holiday in milk for a day or two.
I made up a lovely chocolate mix powder that I add to smoothies, warm almond milk or agave syrup to make choc sauce. It goes like this and it is better for you if you are a constitutionally cold person… if you already have a lot of heat this would be bad

Chocolate powder

2 T raw Cacao powder
2 T carob powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp dried ginger
1/4 tsp chilli powder
Stevia to sweeten.

This is so delish and good to have on hand to flavor my protein powder drinks as well as warm almond milk in stead of dessert if I need a little sweet something.

I was looking at a lot of recipes on line last night and wondering if it is hard to make coconut butter. I looked everywhere for instructions but the only ones I found required boiling the coconut milk. I will keep looking tomorrow.
Soaking some nuts and dates for some dessert experiments tomorrow.
bye

on the twelfth day

I feel like I have settled into a diet I can easily follow and fit in with my busy life.
Smoothie for breakfast with protein powder.
Salad for lunch with soaked seeds in it.
Tahini balls for extra energy if I am going to the gym.
Dinner is a challenge but I am getting there… salad, red pepper ’sandwiches’ with nut cheese, nori roll with sunflower seed pate and veges.
Warm almond milk and raw cacao powder drink for dessert.

Time to shake it up a bit I think and find at least 5 new things to ‘cook’. I am thinking vege burgers and soup might be a good start.
I would also like to make a special dessert but I have had trouble finding some of the ingredients that keep coming up- my fav health food shop are going to call me when they get them in.

I think I might have to find a raw food course to do so I can learn some new recipes and try out the dehydrating etc. I am still not sure about buying a dehydrator… more investigation needed

see you tomorrow

Tomorrow will be all about new recipes.

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