30 Days Raw for Queensland – Day 1

Today was both harder and easier than I thought it would be.  I had done my shop yesterday, and even with a couple of things not available, I spent nearly $90 on fruit & vegetables – it’s scary to think I’ll be eating most if not all of it in a week.  I took a photo of it on my 6 place dining table.  Have a look to the right…

First off, I weighed myself this morning.  Even with having indulged over the last week, getting more raw food into my diet seems to have had an effect, because my weight was down to 144.3kg (318lb) – a drop of 2kg (4.4lb)  from what I was last week, when I saw the doctor.

Breakfast

It was interesting having this first day doing a green smoothie (1/2 mango, 1.5c spinach, .5c rocket, 1c water) for breakfast, then saving the fruit for later.  I realised why so many raw foodists talk about how important it is to have a really good blender, as I discovered what it’s like to try to drink something with chunks of spinach in it!  BTW the really strong green was from my adding spirulina to it – great superfood, and one of the key ingredients of my old favourite ‘Feeling Light Smoothie’ (off limits this month).  The ‘drink’ was so solid that I couldn’t even get through all the celery.  3 stalks of it were left, came with me when the bf and I went out, 2 of them came back home with me, and didn’t get finished until almost dinner.  Interestingly, over 2 hours after I’d had my ‘drink’ I was still feeling VERY full, something I’ve not experienced very often.  I didn’t even start getting hungry until after 12.

Lunch + afternoon snack

Since he was heading off to work tonight, and wanted to go out, the salad I had planned for lunch came from subway, and the lemon juice dressing ended up being some of a fresh OJ from a fruit bar (squeezed in front of me).  I played it safe and left anything even remotely processed out of the salad (olives, jalopenos, pickles) but even so I again found myself feeling incredibly full 3/4 of the way through.  I couldn’t finish it off!  That was by 12.30.  Around 3, though, I started feeling a few cravings for sweet/fatty stuff, so I had the other half of the mango from this morning’s smoothie.  That tided me over again for a while, but not long, so I had a banana – one of the ones for dinner.  Fruit just didn’t seem to be hitting the spot for me, though, and by 4.15 I was wanting something again.  I figure eating raw is enough, so I’m not limiting my intake, and came up with my first ever raw recipe – using slices of cucumber for ‘crackers’ and topping it with a bit of avocado and a pine nut (or two).  I took a photo.    The last one, unfortunately, dropped, so I didn’t get to eat them all.  They tasted so good I was disappointed, but I wasn’t going to cut open a new cucumber to make more (this was salad leftovers).  It hit the spot, though, and the cravings went away.  Probably has something to do with all the fats in the avocado & pinenuts, but still…

Dinner

This was supposed to be a fruit salad of 2 bananas, mango, and berries.  When we went out earlier, I’d got blueberries, but strawberries had been ridiculously expensive so I left them.  Having already had one banana and the last of the mango this afternoon, I ate the other banana and the berries, but again I was finding that fruit just really wasn’t answering what my body was telling me I wanted.  I was also still getting some cravings for junk type foods.  Mushrooms had been in the planned salad (they’re one of my favourite foods), but they don’t have them at subway, so I chopped some up and figured out how to modify my favourite guacamole recipe to be made raw, then I dipped the mushroom quarters in it.  Besides the fruit, this was another extra.  Even so, writing this tonight my stomach is happily telling me that it’s empty, but it’s not actually demanding to be filled again.  All in all, I think I’ve come through the first day’s ‘withdrawals’ ok.  My blender has certainly received a good workout!  I even briefly felt like jumping on the exercise bike after my mushroom meal, but since I had to grab my washing in before it rained I didn’t get to that.

Notes

My 2 cockatiel birds are loving all the celery tops and mango skins I’ve shared with them today.  I’ve got my ‘before’ photos but I’m saving them up for next week when there’s something to compare them to – besides, there’s enough photos here already!  I won’t be taking pictures every day, since I’m back to work tomorrow.  Thankfully, most of my daytime stuff then is fruit but I’m a bit worried after my experience with fruit wearing off so quickly and leaving me hungry again today, so I’m bringing in a capsicum as well.  Fingers crossed that should tide me over til I get home.

Having been able to go out for lunch and still fit within the boundaries was a bit of a pleasant surprise.  Also, while the bf is worried about his visit next weekend when I’m due for a large salad again, we’ve worked out he can bring over a piece of chicken or steak or something and cook it for himself, to have with some of my salad, and we’ll both be happy.   Although I managed with the Subway salad today, it’s a bit sad, in some ways, how hard it can be to track down fresh raw food to eat as compared to instant junk.  I’ve spent this afternoon planting up some lettuces and rocket on the balcony for future use…

I definitely felt today that my body was getting what it wanted.  Even the 3pm cravings seemed to be as much a matter of habit (that’s when I head for junk at work) than of any real desire – although it is only day 1 so I’m under no illusions the cravings are finished.  I also found that getting involved in doing something, like bringing in the washing, or planting my new stuff out on the balcony, shut them down entirely for the duration.  I won’t always be able to use that particular weapon against them, especially when I’m at work, but it’s handy to know.

All in all, I think the first day went well.

Tagged as: 30 day trial, 30 days raw, eating out raw, Lemon juice, Raw foodism, Subway