5 tips that will make the raw transitions easier

Well, no one said that it's going to be easy. But again, nothing in life worth while is easy. So as a person who is personally going through the process of going from cooked foods to raw foods... here's a few tips that will help you succeed...


1. Keep it Simple
Dehadrators? Sprouting? What? As a newbie I definitely don't want to deal with all that stuff. I mean if you want to go all out, then go for it. But in my case it is definitely easier, at least for now, to keep it simple. And by simple I mean basing your diet on mostly fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts and of course juices and smoothies. For the latter two, you do need some equipment like juicer and a blender but again those are easily found and obviously not too difficult too use. And if you still can't figure out what "simple" means, here's an example:
Breakfast - Green Smoothie or Fruit Juice
Lunch - A fruit salad
Dinner - A large green salad
Snacks - nuts and seeds
Of course, you don't want to eat the exactly same thing everyday which brings me to my next point...


2. Get Creative
With so many health food stores popping out everywhere you have more than enough choices to get creative. Many raw foodists like to stock up on raw products so they always have many choices and never have to reach for cooked food. I usually stock up on fruit so I can always make a fresh juice or smoothies, but as far as lunches or dinners go I tend to follow my taste buds and go day by day. So you'll often see me in a local Whole Foods or other health food store, by the salad bar creating my own Salad Creations. Also with raw food getting more and more attention everyday, you can now purchase raw goodies like Raw Granola, Raw Cookies, Sprouted Bread, Raw Honey and chocolate... as you can se the possibilities are endless. And with the endless possibilities comes the pressure so...


3. Take it Easy
Many people try to jump into raw food overnight and some are successful but some not so much. When I started out, I would go for few days 100% raw and then give in and eat some cooked food which is not a bad thing but for some reason made me feel like a failure. Which in turn would make me think that "hey, since I ate some cooked food, now the whole day's ruined and I might as well go and pig out". This is the kind of thinking that made my efforts fail one diet after another. Start slowly, it's ok not to be 100% raw right away. It's better to be 50% raw and 50% healthy cooked food than 100% raw for few days and then eating a large pizza in one sitting. So once again, take it ease.. take it slow! You might want to start of with just a raw breakfast then when you're comfort do raw breakfast and raw lunch... you get the point. Another way of transitioning is to slowly go from a meat eater to vegetarian, then to vegan, then to raw. Start with eliminating red meat, then all other meat, then fish, then dairy products... just go at your own pace and see what works for you. The main thing is not to punish yourself. We're all humans and we make mistakes. And speaking of humans, it brings me to my next point which is...


4. Make New Friends
Now a days there's so many online communities which of course includes raw food communities. Go online, do your research. Join groups, talk to people and learn new things. There are meet up groups in every city. There are people out there just like you looking to help you and make new friends. Seriously, just be open and willing to learn and the opportunities to make new friends will just present themselves. This doesn't mean you have to forget all your all friends, but now you can be the teacher too. You can inform your friends on raw food diet and healthy food choices. Take your friends and go explore some raw food restaurants in your city. Just be open and have fun with it. Yes, that is the main key...


5. Have Fun!
Seriously...what does it all matter if you can't have fun. There's no way you can stick with something if you don't enjoy doing it. So learn, research, involve your friends, get out there, move, walk, run, laugh...do it all. Do it now! Because there's no time like today and the benefits are tremendous! Love and Sunshine to all of You :-)

Longevity on Oprah

I don't watch too much tv but last night I watched an Oprah show that caught my interest. The topic of the show was Life Extension. The first couple guest were people who were on the calorie restriction diet. They were on about 80% raw diet and consumed around 1900 calories for a man and 1600 for a woman. All the guest claimed that this diet have changed their lives. They had more energy, looked younger, haven't been sick for years and their life expectancy was greatly extended.

The doctor on the show, Dr. Oz explained that the way the calorie restriction diet work is that once our bodies have a calorie restriction, they start to work and use the energy more efficentlly therefore making our cells age slower. Of course, I'm sure that the major part of this diet is the raw part. I mean, I honestly doubt you'd be getting these benefits from eating burgers and fried food, even if you kept down the calorie intake.

Another guest on the show was 85 year old David Murdock, the owner and founder of Dole. Mr. Murdock swears by the fresh fruit juices he consumes daily. He can do 50 pushups and feels better than ever. You can check out the clips from Oprah's show here!

Now from Oprah's diet to my diet... I had a great day as far as staying raw and feeling good. Here's what I had today:

2 liters of water
1 pear, 1 banana, with some raw granola and raw walnuts (yummy yum..I cant emphasize enough how much I love this combo)
2 slices of sprouted bread with tomato hummus, tomatoes, radishes, and green onions
1 champagne mango (good, pretty much the same as a regular mango)
Couple handfuls of raw walnuts
another bottle of water

So I'm very happy with my food intake today. I felt great most of the day and not even really hungry. At one point in the day I started to feel like I was coming down with a cold but it went away. I ended my day with a half an hour walk on the treadmill and listened to the first 30 min of Steve Pavlina's new podcast. The podcast started of with some interesting points and I cant wait to finish listening to it tomorrow. Well nite nite everybody!

City Girl - Country Girl

In my life I had the pleasure of both living in the city and the suburbs... and I must say, I am definitely a city girl! Some people think that I'm crazy, they automatically bring up all the possible issues: the traffic, the pollution, the crime, over crowding... but for me the city makes me feel alive. When I'm living in the city I feel more alive... more alert. Why? Maybe because you do have to be more alert. You have to keep your eyes and ears opens so you don't get ran over by a crazy cab, or even mugged. But living there just makes me feel like I accomplish more, even when I'm driving in circles trying to find a parking spot it's like a challenging game. You have to find the spot, then somehow squeeze your car in and not to mention trying to undig yourself the next day during a crazy Chicago winter. As opposed to living in the burbs and pulling up on your driveway, pressing a button and pulling in to the garage. Easier? Yes! More convenient? Definitely? More fun? Not for me... I love the challenge of the city.. the parking hunting, the killer traffic, crazy people.... Oh the people, how I love people watching. All these goofy individuals, I love them all. I can sit and watch and wonder what their story is. I mean, I'm not gonna go into all the wonderfulness of living in my favorite city in the states...Chicago.





It makes me feel alive...it makes me happy! But there also is something to be said about the happiness of the suburban living. The peace and the quiet... but what draws me to it the most is the nature. The green trees, and the trails, and just being able to get out and all you hear is the birds. It's a different way of being and feeling alive and I also appreciate it very much...but deep in my heart I know I am a city girl...and I can always find that piece of the suburbs in the city but I can not find the city in the burbs. To be honest, one of my dreams which I will hopefully achieve sooner than later, is to have my bad ass condo in the city and a log cabin somewhere in the country... and I mean real country, not just the suburbs.

Now few word about my diet...so I finally made the decision to get serious...and here is what I had today:

1 liter of water with my green supps.
2 mandarins, an apple, and 4 carrots

Now this is where I got myself a little screwed up, my friend asked me to join her at Chevy's today. So I did, and tried to order something somewhat healthy which actually didnt work out that great, I had:

couple chips with salsa
half a salad
half a flan
and a tall glass of beer

This all doesn't sound too terrible but it actually gave me a massive stomach ache which felt like my intestines were being twisted...yuk!

On the brighter side, I did a lil bit of shopping at Whole Foods today and came out with some goodies including: strawberries (2 boxes for $3.99 - which I though was a great steal), champagne mangos (never had them before but very excited to try) pears, pineapple ($3.99 - another great deal, I thought) avocados, some raw walnuts, bananas, and my yummy raw granola (that one is way too expensive - $9.99 for a small bag) Well, so there you go, I guess we all know what I'll be eating for the next few days ;-)

Oh Yumminess!

I had the best breakfast ever today... and to think I probably spent like 20 minutes laying in bed deliberating if I should have raw breakfast or go for SAD breakfast. So with all my planning and goals, I came to a conclusion that I'm just not a person who can stick to an hour by hour plan... but is anybody really. With that figured out (what a genius I am) I decided that I'm going to make it easy on myself. So here's my simple yet workable plan... ready? Are you sure? Because this is a groundbreaking concept...here it goes... Have a Raw Breakfast, Have a Raw Lunch, and for dinner have whatever my little (big) heart desires. I really think this will work for me, at least for a while and until I know that I'm ready for the full 100% transition. So the rules are pretty simple as long as I don't overdo the dinner part. Which, of course I'm not gonna run to McDonalds to get a Big Mac or anything like that. But I might share a dinner with my family (which is usually 100% cooked) and which I can usually modify and make it just a little bit healthier or just eat the "healthy" part of the dinner. I mean whatever, just go with the flow. I am tired of restriction and just want to enjoy living my life with freedom and joy. Same goes for working out... why torture myself on the treadmill when I can go and do something I actually enjoy. For example, yesterday early morning I took my dog to the local forest preserve and trust me we both enjoyed it greatly. We got to walk and play for over an hour, all while enjoying a beautiful day in nature. Another thing I enjoy doing is going to a yoga or pilates class, even a weight training class as long as I'm not stuck at the gym by myself trying to lift weights on those miserable machines. Balance and enjoy... it's all about finding the happy medium and sticking to it... the rest will fall into place at the right time.

And now that I got a little side tracked, back to my yummy breakfast... I call it "Banana & Pear Cereal"... even though it's not even cereal :-)

Ingredients:

1 banana
1 pear
couple tablespoons of raw granola
couple tablespoons of raw nuts (any kind)

So this is very simple as you can see, just make sure both fruits are very ripe. Take your fruits, cut them into small pieces and sprinkle the granola and nuts on top. The ripeness of the fruit will make the other ingredients stick to the fruit making sure that in each bite you have the texture of the fruit and the crunchiness of granola. Oh it was so yummy and perfect... just a perfect combination!

Failure

Oh how I hate that word... and I really don't hate a lot of things. I don't even wanna write about the last few days... they were days of feeling like crap, pigging out, and not working out. I actually even started couple of days correctly but by the time noon came, I was already on my way to pig out. But I will not give up...oh no, not that easily. I need to regroup, rethink and come up with a new plan of action. I am a kind of person who needs a schedule so I can stick with things and I think that in this diet thing I'll need to approach things in a similar way. So.....let's try this out:

Goals for tomorrow:

1. Get up no later than 9:00 o'clock
2. Drink a bottle of water n take my green supplements
3. Do 1 hour of callanetics
4. Eat a healthy breakfast (fruits, fruit juice)

I want all of the above done by 10:30

4. 10:30 - 12:00 take care of appts. emails, job hunting
5. Around noon and depending on the weather either do half hour on treadmill or ride bike outside
6. After the work out have a healthy lunch (preferably salad)
7. Spend at least half of the rest of the day working on my website

As far as food options - breakfast and lunch will be all raw and dinner will be vegetarian. Also dont forget...water water water!

Does this sound doable? I hope so... I really hope so...because I refuse to fail...and I will keep on going until I achieve my goal. By the way if anybody has any insight on making this easier... please, please share!

Day 3 & 4

Ayyyaaa yayyy....These have been pretty tough days as far as staying raw goes. First of, I woke up yesterday with major muscle aches...talk abut post work out burn. I managed to get myself on the treadmill and put in my half an hour.






I also got a hold of a callanetics video which I read great reviews about. Basically, callanetics is somewhat similar to pilates and includes a series of slow, precise movements. The claim is that you will see major changes in your body after only 10 sessions. So after I jumped off my treadmill and popped the tape in I had all the intentions of completing the work out. But my body and especially my muscles weren't on the same page as my mind. Even though the movements seem very easy, my sore muscles just didn't have enough strength to keep going. I'm typically the person who jumps into a new work out routine and....over does it. Well, this time I decided to give my self a break.

I was also more hungry then usual yesterday. Well, actually I'm not even sure if it was hunger.. I think more like boredom (emotional) eating. Actually I started of good, but as the day progressed... well see for yourself:

Breakfast: glass of freshly squeezes orange / carrot juice (A+)
Lunch: Orchard Harvest Salad from Panera (I'd say mostly a good choice. Lots of veggies, some nuts, dried cranberries, pears, and some chees)




Dinner: 2 slices of sprouted bread with tomato hummus and sliced tomatoes (still not bad)
Snack: Berry Topper from Jamba juice (this typically is not too bad since its frozen fruits, soy milk, sorbet, and organic granola - but I feel like I started to overdo it here a little bit and didn't really need to have this)
Snack continues: Chicken (yikes...yea I know...but I just couldn't resist. The fam. cooked dinner and my stomach was growling like crazy so I had few bites)

Well, there you go. That was yesterday and I decided I'm not going to beat myself up over little mistakes. Just go day by day and try to do the best I can.

Today I woke up feeling much better, definitely wasn't as tired and groggy as yesterday. I didn't get to do my treadmill because of a bunch of things I had to do this morning but I'm planning to hit the gym tonight. My body's feeling less sore so I shouldn't have any motivational problems. And here's the food list:

Breakfast: glass of chocolate almond milk
Lunch: 2 scrambled eggs with couple slices of rye bread (damn Panera and their irresistable bread)
Snack: Apple
Dinner: Fuji Apple salad from Panera
Snack: Bread (more bread...grrrr!!!)

I'm not weighting myself til Monday, it's gonna be a week. I really hope that the scale won't disapoint me, but either way I'm not going to give up. I just have to continue and try to improve day by day. So far I think I've been about 50% raw and 90% vegetarian. So the goal is to bring these numbers up as much as possible. Happy Munching Rawckers!




My b-day tulips still holding up ;-)

Day 2

Well, I would say I had another successful diet day. Could do a little better with the raw part...but overall I'm satisfied with the process. For breakfast I once again had my Yummy juice (carrot, orange, and apple) with some raw granola. For lunch I had 2 slices of sprouted bread with 2 fried eggs and a tomato and green onion salad. After that I had a glass of chocolate almond milk and in the evening it was couple carrots with Tomato basil hummus and a cup of tea with honey. Oh wait I also sneaked in a couple small pieces of the cold smoked salmon from the day before.

As far as the work out goes...another successful day. In the morning I did my half an hour on the treadmill and in the evening I went to a weight training class at Bally's. And, man was that class great. I can already feel my sore muscles throbbing. But it's a good pain. I actually like the after work out burn... it gives me a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment and I love it.

Other than that... I'm feeling a little stuck in my life. But I have a feeling things will get better soon... I mean it has to, once you hit the bottom the only way to go is up. Once again, I just have to keep myself busy and on track and hopefully I'll have work soon and start bringing home the bacon, or in this case lettuce :-)