Summer 2010 | Raederle's Raw Blog
This summer I'm working up to going 100% raw.
(Summer 2010 - Living in Walnut Creek, California – The summer I married Lytenian)
June 7th 2010
I wrote my first entry the day after meeting the amazing speaker; Markus Rothkranz. That first entry was three weeks ago today. Before then, I was trying somewhat to eat more raw foods, but with little success.
It's hard to go raw when you think that all there will be to eat is salad, salad, more salad, and a fruit salad. I knew there was more than that because I have been to several raw food potlucks over the past year, and in fact, I hosted my own for the first time yesterday.
I'm still annoyed with myself for not taking photos of the potluck yesterday. I did, at least, take some photos of a couple of the dishes I made before anyone showed up.
There were so many delicious dishes brought;
Avocado Wraps
A very sweet woman who I met at the free-Sunday-morning yoga-in-Civic-park brought Avocado wraps which consisted of guacamole wrapped in large lettus leaves. I quite enjoyed them in particular.
Tahini Lemon Salad
I learned yesterday that I don't like Tahini personally; although everyone else loved the fresh tahini-lemon dressing served over a fresh garden salad. Tahini is sesame seeds blended with water.
Sweet Wilted Kale Salad
Consisting of a base of kale, covered in a sweet fruit sauce. (Click here to check out recipes for kale similar to this one.)
Fruit Avocado Salad
A salad with a base of avocados and fruits also containing some leafy greens.
Mango PuddingTwo and a half mangos, most of a banana, some peach, one strawberry, and some kiwi; blended into a pudding consistency and topped with crushed pecans. (Optional pineapple in a bowl to the side.)I posted my Mango Pudding recipe here. |
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Strawberry Pudding
Half a mango, a bite of banana, two peaches, five strawberries, and a kiwi; blended into a deliciously creamy pudding consistency, topped with crushed pecans and four or five sliced strawberries. (Optional pineapple in a bowl to the side.)
Fruit BallsDried cherries, two kinds of dried figs, a couple dates (pitted), dried apricots, pecans and other raw mixed nuts, almond butter, and dried currants rolled into balls on cocoa and coconut shavings.I posted my very first video demo for this recipe – it's just the first video I've ever done like this, so please be understanding of the unprofessional attire, camera, quality, etc. I wasn't even yet 100% raw vegan at the time. |
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My Raw Food Journey Progress
For the past three weeks, I've progressed to having salad or smoothie for breakfast, and then salad or smoothie for lunch, with an apple, kiwi or a few slices of pineapple for brunch.
Sometimes I make an elaborate raw dinner, but sometimes I still have a cooked dinner.
However, my cooked meals (and raw meals) do not include any meat, dairy, sugar, breads, flour, or pastas unless it's brown rice pasta.
Raw Food Photos
A raw food diet is not boring in the least. This is just the beginning; the first three weeks trying to reach for 100% raw. I'm more and more excited about this each week, and my confidence and level of energy just keeps growing.
In other news: Yesterday morning – Sunday morning – Yoga in Civic park; entirely free yoga under the sun! Or in the shade of the lovely trees; as I prefer. The yoga is taught by various teachers from lululemon.
I can't imagine having a more energizing and productive day than outdoor yoga followed by a raw food potluck! And to think, just last year I could barely get into the downward facing dog position!
August 28th 2010
Written roughly two months after the post above. I went 100% raw on September 3rd 2010, so this is just preceding that.
To be honest, I've been struggling with going 100% raw.
I believe deeply in the value of not eating any poisons.
I believe in the value of every single morsel that I put in my mouth bursting with nutrition.
But even though I believe, there are several walls I've been hitting.
The first and most difficult issue is that I hate the taste of most vegetables. The smell of sprouts makes me sick to my stomach. I can't stand raw peas, or green beans. My favorite beans I don't like sprouted or raw (lima beans and garbanzo beans).
Cabbage and kale I find so disgusting I can't begin to adjust to them even in small portions... Well, except that my green drink had a bit of kale in it today and I didn't find the drink unbearable because of it. So I guess that's a start on kale.
Fortunately, I'm beginning to circumvent this problem. One thing I've been doing is trying new vegetables. For example, today my husband and I went to the farmers market, and one of the things we bought were beats. I discovered that shredded raw beets on top of a salad is pretty darn good.
Another way I've been working around this issue is to try adjusting to things that I simply dislike, but don't hate. I've been successful with a few vegetables.
I've discovered that while I don't want to simply much on a cucumber, I don't mind it in a green drink, or sliced up small on my salad.
While I won't simply snack on spinach, I can sneak a handful in a smoothie or chop up some finely on a lettuce salad.
I dislike raw broccoli quite a bit, but I don't mind crumbled up broccoli-head-bits on my salad either.
And while I don't like celery much, I'll tolerate it a few sticks of it with raw almond butter down the spine.
Unfortunately, while these measures do improve my health, I'm still not excited about eating celery, spinach, cucumber or broccoli. I'm proud of myself for coming far enough to be able to eat a good amount of each of them, but it's still not something I can be enthusiastic about.
Another wall I've come up against in trying to go raw is in growing my own things. Something really important about going raw is eating fresh, fresh, fresh food.
Grocery-store fresh is not enough.
My husband I bought plants. We bought an Aero garden which came with tomatoes, which is flourishing, and now has begun to flower, but as of yet, no tomatoes. We bought basil plants, which seemed to be the best investment since we've eaten a lot of fresh basil. We also bought sage, strawberry, and rosemary plants which have all but entirely died because we simply don't get enough sunlight on our balcony for them.
We thought that we could use the Aero garden light to grow plants indoors, which was all well and good until we managed to get an aphid infestation. I wasn't happy with the idea of so many bugs in the house, so the plants moved to our nearly-sunless balcony, and have since then mostly wilted and died. What's left is some basil chives, one strawberry plant (which has not produced any strawberries since we bought it, which may not really be unusual), and the basil.
The was quite the expenditure for so little result. It's possible to grow things in pots successfully; I've seen it done. But you can't do it without sunlight, and this apartment just doesn't get enough. I ought to be growing edible weeds (such as dandelions) I suppose. They might hold up even without plenty of sun. But somehow I'm skeptical...
So, that's something to keep in mind. If you don't have sunlight access from your apartment, these are your options for getting things fresh: hydroponics, and farmer's markets. Although, not everything at a farmer's market is very fresh, and it's still not the same as eating something directly off the plant. Another option in some places is to buy/rent a bed at a local community garden. Then you can grow and eat fresh produce without needing anything set-up at home.
Of course, growing sprouts doesn't require sunlight, but I can't stand sprouts. Lytenian loves them though.
We're planning on moving at the end of January. I'm excited about moving into a place where we'll be able to grow things. (We didn't actually move to Buffalo, NY until April 2011.)
The other major obstacles people face when going raw are not as much of an issue for me since I've already long-since sworn off of all sugar, breads and so forth. So I'm not experiencing harsh sugar cravings or withdrawal.
I already gave up coffee years ago (mostly just because I didn't like it without milk and sugar in it.) I already gave up milk years ago, and eventually all dairy, including butter most recently. (Somehow, I didn't really realize butter was a diary product...)
It's just those last few things it's hard to give up on; long-grain brown rice, cooked lima beans, shrimp (I didn't give up shrimp when I gave up meat), eggs, fried plantains, yam-fries... Those in particular are really hard to give up for me.
So I've been waffling about what to do. I've managed to get by without so many of the things I was used to by introducing so many new and interesting things into my diet like mango pudding, fruit balls, raw cake, and intricate salads with fancy dressings...
But now I'm facing the question; am I'm going to go all the way? 100% raw foods, with nothing cooked, at all?
I'm not sure what my answer is yet, but I do know this: I'm going on an intense three month detox. It's likely I'll stay entirely raw after the fact.
This intense three month parasite-killing detox is going to be as follows:
[Parasite Killing Detox]
- Daily super-clean showering.
- Daily sanitation of various surfaces.
- Lots of Water & Garlic Tea.
- An enema every other day.
- Clove oil once a week.
- Daily Grapefruit-seed Extract
- The first few days: Onions & Garlic & Cinnamon oil in the ears
- 100 crunches every other day.
- 20 push-ups every other day.
- At first: No food/drink. All water.
- Starting after week 2: 1 daily probiotic at night
- Starting after the water fast: 2 Green Drinks daily. (No fruits; all vegetables.)
- After the green drink phase: 2 Green Drinks daily, 1 Smoothie Daily, 1 Salad daily
August 2012
Looking back on this, it is amazing how far I've come! I now make kale salads regularly, enjoy mild green juices (click here for recipes) made from lettuce and cilantro, and I even eat celery without almond butter! My tastes have entirely transformed.
The detox plan to raw worked, but I only managed three days of water fasting. It isn't something I'd recommend as an introduction to raw. A juice feast would be better.
Thanks for reading and supporting my transformation with your kind words and love. You can read more of my personal journey here: Raederle's Memoirs
~ Raederle Phoenix
