Daily Routine (and Tangents)

Routine is so important...it's especially important to have raw prep done before mealtime. Once I'm hungry-it's too late! And since I'm doing **great, failure is not an option!

Last night before bed I looked in the fridge and determined what needed used soonest...buying lots of produce in bulk means lots of waste if something isn't used before it's less than fresh. So I determined which veggies would become my big lunch salad. (I try to eat the bulk of my calories mid-day but a later meal would be fine if I switch mid-plan and end up doing a piece of fruit and another smoothie for lunch. The key is keeping with my mental list of what needs used up.)

This morning, while my herb tea was brewing and prunes were stewing, I made a strawberry-blueberry-orange smoothie, soaked some chickpeas for sprouting (these will become hummus), and prepared a mango salad for later...

Lunch: Big Veggie Salad

Dinner: Big Veggie Salad (same name different ingredients)
Seriously, I wish you could see the size of this salad. Because I took a close-up so you could see the individual veggies there is no way to see the size bowl. I'd say it's about three cups ... I eat slow to chew every bite about 40 times, so it takes awhile ... but it all fits in my stomach:)

See how pretty all the veggies are? Mushrooms and zucchini sprinkled with a little namu shoyu, sweet onion, cucumber, tomato,
sweet yellow pepper, jalepeno, and if you look closely there are four cloves of garlic diced in there...and cilantro and lime juice. Post photo I added a tablespoon of hummus on top because I knew I was going to be able to afford the calories today and also the sweet red hummus in the fridge was so yummy and so tempting... it was crying eat me!!! Plus this hummus recipe has zero chickpeas so while it was not fat free it was low-fat, only 1g per tablespoon:)

After eating every meal, I log into Fitday.com because keeping track of fat grams is unfortunately a big part of my life now. I started out with 10 grams fat as my max hoping that wold keep me below the 10% fat total for my day...after three weeks, it obviously wasn't...so now my goal is less than 8 grams of fat per day. As long as I stay raw and vegan this isn't a problem, the problem is when I add yummy organic corn chips and hummus as a midday snack. Then I'm really down to measuring tablespoons and counting chips. The bother makes it a rare but greatly appreciated treat...though I am working on creating a low to no fat recipe for both the chips and hummus to make at home from scratch, because I could honestly live on hummus:/ Hence the chickpeas sprouting in the back of the photo...

The minute I have an amazing tasting recipe... you'll be the first to know.

Back to fat gram counting for a second...

Tangent: I'm obviously still losing weight, even though I'm not trying and in my opinion eat like a pig (honestly I've never eaten so much at meals)... I'm observing something that seems to be a raw foodie phenomenon concurred by the many raw foodists I've discussed it with...
Here's the observance: I never lost weight like I'm losing it now being vegetarian or vegan and I attribute it namely to the fact that when I was vegetarian I was consuming huge amounts of dairy to replace the meat. Just looking at a recent Vegetarian Times Magazine proves the point when comparing the nutritional info at the bottom of the recipes to what I am eating now...huge calorie and fat intake. Even as a vegan, I didn't lose weight like I am losing now. The explanation I've come up with: Grains. *Starches. I don't know if it clogs the guts or whether the body just hangs onto those calories instead of spending them for energy, but something is going on there...obviously I am no scientist. On raw there is no dairy, there is no grains, and few starches.

...because by counting fat I am also conscious of my calorie intake...and it was low...too low (500-600 calories a day) before I started really looking at what I was eating, which meant I would get tired and run out of steam. I wasn't necessarily hungry because like I said I was eating a load of food. The problem was by focusing solely on greens and veggies I couldn't hold enough in my stomach to add up to 1000 calories a day. I am now making sure that I add some dried fruits (prunes, cranberries, raisins) and some nuts/seeds (always careful of their huge fat impact), or higher calorie fruits (bananas, pineapple, oranges) every morning.

Breakfast: 32oz smoothie, herb tea (no sweetener), and softened, warmed prunes.
325Cal   1.3gFat    4.6gProtein

Snack: 16oz Coconut Juice
152Cal    0.0Fat    0.0gProtein

Lunch: Veggie/Citrus Salad with Honey Lime Dressing, and some seeds
203Cal    0.5gFat    5.6gProtein

Dinner: Veggie Salad with Lemon Garlic Dressing
81Cal      1.7gFat     3.6g Protein

Snack:
Mango/Pineapple Salad
121Cal    0.4gFat    0.8gProtein

Days Total:
882Cal  3.9gfat    14.6gProtein

I obviously didn't make it to a 1000Cal but I did keep below 8gFat, so I'm happy with today...super stuffed...and not eating anything else. I've heard of raw foodists who consume between 2-3KCal/day to keep their weight on...I'm not there yet...if I lose another 20-30pounds I'm okay with that...I just don't want to lose too much and I can't imagine eating the bulk of food they must eat to hit those kinds of numbers (unless its with several handfuls of nuts/seeds every day.)

Tangent: Looking at just nuts and seeds, its easy to see how someone could potentially stay overweight by going raw...
Observance: It's really about finding balance and everyone has to find what's right and what works for their body type. I believe it is very important to not over-rely on nuts and seeds for recipes whether counting fat grams or not and I'm not a fan of co-called gourmet raw though I'll never be judgmental about another raw foodies diet (because believe me, hanging out in the raw-foodie online community for recipes, advice and such, I've learned the politics are bigger than in any corporation or church I've ever been in.)

*The major sources of starch intake worldwide are the cereals rice, wheat, and maize, and the root vegetables potatoes and cassava.^[13] Many other starchy foods are grown, some only in specific climates, including acorns, arrowroot, arracacha, bananas, barley, breadfruit, buckwheat, canna, colacasia, katakuri, kudzu, malanga, millet, oats, oca, polynesian arrowroot, sago, sorghum, sweet potatoes, rye, taro, chestnuts, water chestnuts and yams, and many kinds of beans, such as favas, lentils, mung beans, peas, and chickpeas.

**I am hanging in there at 98%raw vegan, no meat, no dairy, no preservatives, mostly organic, localvore when possible (I wish someone could grow bananas and mangos in Ohio)... I have also been medication free, no steroids, pain pills, biologics, or antibiotics for 60 days. This is huge since I am also PAIN-FREE and SYMPTOM-FREE from both RA and Crohn's. I have lost fifty pounds.