Raw Food Kick

Hey Hey,

So, I'm back on a raw food kick! After a few days of eating round the clock junk food, I thought this would be a good time to clean out my system and enjoy food in its pure flavors and form. It's also much easier to go on a raw food diet when the weather is warm. You just feel like eating fresh food more! So far this has been going great. This is my second day! With the help of Mimi Kirk's Live Raw book and Raw on $10 a Day (or Less) I'm pretty sure I will have no problem doing this for at least a week if not longer!

I'm going to post at least a recipe a day.

Have you guys ever thought about going on a raw food diet?

Day 4...Going Strong

Hello Friends, Yesterday was day 4 of my raw food diet and the day was completed successfully. I have to admit, the previous three days left me pretty groated out and bloated, so I did avoid the groats all day. For breakfast I had papaya, watermelon and banana all very good and delicious for a points value of 4. For lunch, I went to the raw food store and bought a raw organic pizza which had the following ingredients: sundried tomatos, raisins, lemon juice, olive oil, basil, red onion, garlic, miso, peppers, parsley. The 'crust' consisted of olive oil, tomatos, sunflower and flax seeds, agave nectar and sea salt. I really wish these meals had the nutritionals on them. I am guesstimating this meal to have 10 points. For dinner I had Chipotle, but made sure it was all raw. I got a 'burrito bowl' comprised of salad, guacamole, tomato salsa and onions. All probably 6 points (it was the guac ppl). So far the raw thing is going ok. Maybe its too soon to tell, but I am looking for changes. I have noticed that I am probably getting way more fiber than before. I also like the fact that I can pronounce the ingredients of everything I eat and I have more of an interest in trying different types of foods...durian anyone? What I should focus on is preparing more robust raw meals. I think to truly benefit from this experience I need to learn how to make a 'tuna' sandwhich or 'pizza'. This is probably something I will experiment over this weekend. Now, I have to be completely honest with you. I am in day 5 of my raw food journey, but as I stated in the beginning of this challenge, I'm sure there will be days where I cannot eat raw all the time. Unfortunately, today is one of those days. I have a dinner engagement to go to tonight and there will be no raw food there. Knowing that I will not be rawing it tonight, I let myself have a bagel with cream cheese this morning and again, I will be totally honest, my stomach is really not liking the bagel this morning. Now, because I know I don't feel all that great after eating the bagel, I know I will be raw fooding it til my dinner tonight. Also, this is the only day this week that I plan on not completely raw fooding it, so this journey is not over! Any question?

Day 3...Another day, another blizzard...

Day 3 of my raw food journey was all spent in my apartment. Thanks to mother nature the east coast got pounded with a blizzard where all schools and most offices/businesses were closed. I literally live 5 minutes away from the mall, and couldn't even step outside to make it there. None the less, it was a snow day! A day spent inside all day is a good day to eat whatever you want, be lazy and cozy and I did exactly this, except everything I ate was of raw food form :-) Luckily, the night before I ventured out to the grocery store and stocked up on some essentials. My breakfast was a little bit different yesterday. I had dehydrated buckwheat groats, with bananas, raisins, cinnamon and mylk for a total of 5 points. Buckwheat groats have a different taste, texture and form from oat groats. If you are ever looking for a healthy, crunchy yogurt topping, I would say buy some dehydrated buckwheat groats. For lunch I made a salad using half of an avocado, fennel, cilantro, onion, shredded cabbage and lemon juice, mixed together and seasoned with salt and papper for a total of 4.5 points. I also had two snacks: an orange, groats and raisins total of 3 points. By the time dinner hit, my stomach was not feeling too well. I think it's because of all the fiber I've been taking in, but I definitely felt bloated and did not want to eat anything heavy. So, I took 2TB of all natural peanut butter and chopped of up an apple, and made a shake out of this, using filtered water. This was very delicious, but really, really filling (I guess it was the PB), which did not help my stomach. Also, all of this was 6 points. I still feel bloated today. I'm trying to stay away from groats anything today (these babies containg A LOT of fiber!!). I am however looking forward to my weigh in tomorrow morning! How are you guys doing?

Raw Food Recipe Alert -My Morning Oatmeal

I thought I would post my recipe for my morning oatmeal, all raw :-)

1/4.c of oat groats, soaked overnight and drained

1TB of raisins

1TB of chopped almonds

1TB of flax seeds

1/4c of almond milk

1TB of cinnamon

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Enjoy!

Servings: 1

Points: 5

PS: you could put this in the blender and blend lightly for oatmeal consistency. I like my oatmeal like this!

Never know, maybe Weight Watchers would ask me to write a raw food book for them!

Day 2...Whew Made It Through...

Hello Everyone! Yesterday was Day 2 of my raw food diet. Yes, only day 2 and I was thinking about quitting -but I didn't!! I started my day off with my usual raw food breakfast of raisins, groats, almonds, flax seeds and almond mylk. This was delicious. Although, I have to say, on such a cold morning, it would have been good to have a hot bowl of oatmeal. My co worker told me about a trick though -warm your bowl and then put your food in it. I'll have to try this next time. For lunch, I really did not want to have my butternut squash mix from the day before. Instead, I had 2TB of all natural peanut butter and an apple, a points total of 5. Later on during the day, I had a few almonds, points value of 2. My day was going fine, until the reality set in of having a huge snow storm the following day! I knew I had to do some grocery shopping and get dinner for the night. Luckily, there is a natural food's store a couple of blocks away from work. When I stepped inside, it was completely PACKED! I quickly went to the raw food section and bought a few items that I was running low on (raisins, pumpkin seeds, bananas, dried buckwheat groats). Then I went to the prepared raw meals section and eyed a Moc Tuna Sandwhich -completely raw. I decided to buy this and have this as my dinner. The only down fall, there were no nutritionals on this, but the ingredients for the whole sandwhich, including the bread were clearly written on the front. Lets discuss. The 'tuna' itself had the following ingredients: almonds, sunflower seeds, cashews, lemon juice, celery, red onion, parsely, peppers, olives and capers. The 'bread': sunflower seeds, flax seeds, agave nectar, sea salt, tomato and alfalfa sprouts. Since I did not have the nutritionals for this sandwhich and noticed most of the sandwhich was made of nuts, I cut the sandwhich in half and only ate half, which was very filling! I only had 8 points left for the day and I really hope only half of that sandwhich was 8 points. OK-back to the sandwhich, the 'tuna' part of the sandwhich actually tasted like a real mayo-e tuna salad. It even looked like tuna salad. I need to find out how to make this and put this over a salad! The bread was just alright. A little hard, but that was fine, but it was a bit too sweet for me. I'm assuming this is due to the agave nectar. How did I feel? I have to say not too bad and not as hungry as my first day. I'm pretty sure this first week will be the hardest, but I'm sure I can get through 30 days of raw fooding it....only 28 more left :-p Any questions?

Raw fooding it...Day 1

Yesterday I used up all my points in my raw food diet!! Seriously, the use of nuts and oils definitely takes a toll on your points. Atleast this is balanced out with eating a lot of fresh fruits and veggies. I started my day off with breakfast, which consisted of raisins, groats, chopped almonds, flax seeds and almond mylk - all for 5.5 points. This actually held me over til lunch time, where I prepared a salad of chopped butternut squash, cranberries, onions, almonds and jalapeno pepper. I seasoned this with cumin seeds and coriander powder. All of this had a points value of 4, but seriously, I couldn't help but think how this would have been much better with some crumbled goat cheese! I got hungry about an hour later and had a snack of an apple and some almonds. This little snack was 4points!!! I do think I'm getting almonded out though. By the time I made it home for dinner, I was starving. Thanks to my quick, handy dandy vidalia chopper, I made myself a quick mexican mix which consisted of diced avocado, mushrooms, celery, onion and corn. I mixed all of this up with taco seasoning(I'm guessing this is raw?!?). Now this was delicious and filling and worth 7 points! Ill be honest, in between meals I was a bit hungry, but not starving. I was good enough to just make it to my next meal. All in all, I made it through my first day, and I'm now onto day 2! How did your day go?

Day 1: Raw fooding it...

So last month I went on a raw food diet for a week, this time I am attempting to go on a raw food diet for a month. Well, I'll be honest, a slightly raw food diet. Yes, I will eliminate coffee, but I am still staying with my green tea. Now, why am I doing this for a month? Well, this is sort of my way of detoxing my body. Trying to eliminate all the processed food and toxins from my body. Now, I am not abandoning WW by an means. In fact, I am incorporating my raw food diet within my points system. Just because you are eating healthy, raw food, too much of this can cause weight gain as most raw foods have a lot of nuts incorporated into them. Lots of nuts = lots of fat and calories! So, I thought I would document my raw food experience with you all. Some of the recipes I have are from raw food books, others are from myself. They are all tasty and I will share as much as I can with you, so lets begin! Breakfast -My Muesli 1/4c groats, soaked over night and drained the next day 1TB of raisins 1TB of chopped almonds 1TB of cinnamon 1TB of flax seed 1/4c. of almond mylk (recipe from Ani Phyo's raw food book) Mix all of this in a bowl and enjoy! Total points: 5.5 Now, I know this is more points than usual for my breakfast, but lets see if I will need a snack later on! PS: Ill post a pic tonight!

And the results are in....

Good morning! This week has certainly been interesting. I managed to eat mostly raw foods atleast 85% of the week. It was so interesting to see how easy and flavorful raw meals can be. I definitely felt 'cleaner' and lighter througout this week. I also noticed I was eating as we should all be eating, in the sense, do not stuff yourself silly. Instead, take your time and enjoy your food and take pleasure on how such simple flavors can be put together to make such a fresh delicious meal. It is not my goal what so ever to do completely raw. I still love my meat, and the great flavors you get out of veggies when you roast them, but I have to say, I will make more of an effort to eat more raw foods. Maybe it was the raw foods, or the fact that I've been keeping up with my running but I am down another two pounds this week!!!!! I am happy and of course excited. I'm also a bit worried though, will going back to my regular eating habits result in weight gain? I guess we will find out next week. Right now, yes, I am really happy about the 2 pound weight loss! How are you guys doing?

Week Two...Tryin Somethin New...

Good Morning Everyone, We are now into week 2 of the New Year. This week I've decided to try something different, something that I've been wanting to do for a while, and that is a raw foods diet. At work, I found Ani Phyo's book: Ani's Raw Food Kitchen. I LOVE this book because number one, most of the recipes are very simple, number two the fancy schmancy equipment that other raw foods recipes ask for, are optional in this book! Surprisingly, being on the raw foods diet has worked out well in conjuntion to weight watchers. Although there are a lot of nuts and EVOO used in recipes, with proper portion control I stay within my points. So, what have I noticed thus far being on a raw foods diet? Well, I do have more energy. I've also realized that a raw food diet does not mean eating bland fruits and veggies. When the right foods are combined, this is really delicious! You can make everything from burgers to wraps, to decadent desserts!! Ani is amazing when it comes to this!! Last night I made a whole 3 course raw food meal which consisted of: Lemon Fennel EVOO soup Cabbage slaw with thyme and apple cider vinegar Delicious Dolmas stuffed with dill, raisins, pine nuts and sun dried tomatos!!! Yum..all this was around 9 points!!! So good and delicious!!! Go ahead and try something new and healthy this week!!! How have you guys been doing this week?