Raw recipe!

I felt like improvising today so I made my first raw recipe. I made 'spaghetti' out of raw zucchini and butternut squash. Then in the blender, I made a spinach/basil pesto!

2 Large kale leaves
2 cups of fresh spinach
a handful of basil leaves
3 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup of raw sunflower seeds
1/4 cup of raw pumpkin seeds
sea salt to taste

I also added an avocado to the spaghetti to make it more filling, but I made plenty!

Oh man it was so delicious!

Also, one of my friends loaned me his industrial juicer that he used at his old restaurant!

I had my first glass of freshly juiced granny smith apple juice-- the best juice I've ever had! Then (don't gag) I juiced a blood orange, a lemon, a handful of spinach and a couple kale leaves together and sweetened it with agave syrup. It was amazing!

I love all the healthy vitamins and nutrients I'm getting. I feel fantastic!

In the Rabbit Club

For the last week now, I've only been eating uncooked organic fruits, vegetables, nuts and some sprouted whole grains (quinoa for instance).

Whenever I write it out like that it seems so extreme. In practice, it hardly feels that way.

I started seven days ago mostly out of curiosity. I like to experiment with nutrition to see what works best for my health and vitality. There's a bajillion books out there that will tell you what you should eat, but really, only you can know what will make you feel the best.

I'd already discovered that a diet devoid of processed and refined sugars as well as starches like pasta and potatoes makes me feel pretty good. I'm fairly certain that I have a genetic predisposition for sugar addiction-- my body does not process them well and tends to balloon. I never really felt good about the volume of meat/dairy I ate on that diet and that's for ethical reasons. In the last couple years, if I bought meat it was organic. The meat industry is nasty and I'd rather not support it with my patronage.

Anyway, I've known many a vegan in my lifetime and none of them were malnourished. Some were even overweight. I guess it's not hard if you're a pasta freak. The only major deficiencies I've read about that happen when you haven't thought through your diet well is B vitamins. For those of you who are immediately concerned for me-- I'd say take a look at your own diet and ask yourself where the vitamins are coming from. Pasta? Even if its enriched, those vitamins aren't exactly readily absorbed by the body. Processed foods? I'd like to avoid a platter full of chemical additives, thanks. The saturated fats and cholesterols of meat, eggs and dairy are something that the body doesn't particularly need. The liver actually produces enough cholesterol-- you don't need to add anymore to your body!

I've set out some rules for myself for the next thirty days:

1. If I feel like crap, or starved, I will stop.
2. No dairy, no meat, no eggs
3. I'll aim to eat at least 1 lb of green leafy vegetables each day.
4. I will not use my stove or microwave.
5. I will work out as usual.

So far so good. No hunger pangs, no sugar rushes from the fruit, no malcontent. I've actually felt fabulous. In fact, I've lost 5.5 pounds eating plenty of delicious and healthy food with no deprivation.

Here's a sample of what I eat in a day:

Breakfast:
Banana, pecan, almond milk smoothie
1 Grapefruit
1 Avocado

OR
1 celery stalk cut up
1 red bell pepper
Fresh raw pesto for dipping
1 banana

Lunch
1/2 pound spinach greens in a salad with tomatoes and green peppers
1 banana
1 green apple
1 pear for afternoon snack

Dinner
3-4 cups purple cabbage chopped
2 carrots grated
1 avocado, all mixed together with olive oil and rice vinegar
Also, lettuce leaf spring rolls with bean sprouts, beet greens, fresh pineapple, fresh basil, carrot, cilantro. Dipped in peanut sauce!

Maybe it's hard to believe I'd be satisfied on that, but the sheer volume of it is quite heavy. Also incredibly nutritious.

Costs. One might predict that it's rather expensive. Some of the things certainly are. Raw nuts? Expensive. You can find them though and you don't need many to supplement your diet. I also got some coconut oil which has the saturated fat necessary to spur natural cholesterol production. Avocados are like 89 cents each and I eat about two per day. I make frequent trips to the store but it's limited to the produce section. a bag of organic carrots, a bunch of beet greens and a cabbage cost me 4 bucks. That's three dinners right there. The lack of meat is really what makes it cheap. Also the lack of dairy. Almond milk is pretty inexpensive and adds some creaminess to the diet, along with the avocados. In some ways, this is really a great poor man's diet.

Let me see what the break down of costs would be for a day:
2 avocados @ .89 each
1/3 purple cabbage @ .75
2 carrots @ .40 cents
2 bananas @ 1.00
1 red bell pepper @ 1.20
1/4 cup of pecans @ 1.00
1 pear @.75
16 oz almond milk @ .75
(I get lunch free at school)
Basil for pesto @ 1.00
1 Celery stalk @ .25

about 8 bucks a day? Sounds about right. It can be expensive if you don't have seasonings yet. But once you have them they last a while.

Anyway, I'm down from 156 to 150.5 as of this morning. That means a 1 month total weight loss of 11.5 lbs. Diet and exercise! Yeah.

Toodles.