Reflecting on my juice feast.

Well I haven't posted in a while, I've been trying to process all that I went through with the juice feast. I had a lot of trouble drinking the recommended 16 cups of juice. I had my ups and downs some days I wanted to quit and others I enjoyed the process. It was difficult to get used to making so many juices all day. I was really getting sick of ALL juices. I stopped my fast after 8 days, my body just could not go to 10 days.

When I broke my fast I had a green smoothies and some Italian prune plums. After that my body just craved fats. I ate nuts and seeds, which I was not supposed to do until at least day 3. I even ate some chicken. I was craving foods that I had given up and stopped thinking about until after my fast. It was because my body wanted fats, it just wanted to feel full.

Perhaps if I drank enough juice on my fast I would not have felt this way. There is no way to tell, it was a new experience for me. I am so glad I did it.The group support was amazing! Enough time has past since the fast that I'm actually thinking of doing another one this spring. I never thought I would feel that way or ever want to juice again. For a few days after the fast I could not go near my juicer. But about 3 days later I did juice again and I have been ever since.

After the juice fast I let myself eat whatever I wanted and feel how ever I wanted without judgement. I knew I would be back on track in no time. Giving myself this permission made that period of feeling off balance last only a few days. I did stick to a mostly raw diet, but I was not eating as clean as I was before the fast.

I am so glad that I am back on track now and feeling good.

Getting to know myself better

Today is day number 6 of my juice feast I woke up feeling good. Last night was difficult I was not feeling very well, but after a good nights rest things are better. I have to say it's actually been positive for me that I had such a hard time yesterday. This juice fast is a journey, I'm learning a lot about myself some good some bad.

In some areas of my life I give up too quickly when things start to get difficult. For example on the first day of fast I thought I broke my juicer while I was making my first juice of the day. In my mind I thought to myself that I could not do the juice fast. I was relieved then I realized I needed to forge ahead and not quit. I pushed the reset button and it worked again. But sometimes in my life I'll put things off for another time when I'm faced with difficulty. Instead of addressing the problem and finding a solution right away even if it takes a few days to implement.

This juice fast helped me to see that I have to stop doing this. It is very counterproductive. I feel so clear right now and I can finally analyze my life and stop some of my bad habits. I can't explain why I feel so clear. My diet before the fast was pretty clean I ate pretty much all fruits and vegetables. I didn't eat sugar, caffeine or any processed foods. I felt pretty great on my diet, but this fast takes it to another level. I am really glad I am doing this, it is much easier doing it with a group. It's nice to connect on our forum and discuss ideas and any difficulties we are having. The support helps a lot. My husband and son have also been so great during my fast without their love and support it would be much more difficult.

Dear Dad I've gone raw...

Photo taken by bryan champ

The hardest thing about going raw was not giving up my favorite foods. It was telling my Dad! I grew up in a typical Egyptian household. Food was the center of everything. No one was a vegetarian and rice was always served with dinner. We did eat a lot of fruits and vegetables but most of the vegetables were cooked. It was a lot healthier than the standard American diet, but it was still a cooked diet

My son and I went to Florida this past August to visit my Dad and even though I was so excited to see him I was worried about his reaction to my diet. I decided that it would be best to tell him in person and not over the phone.

I didn't have to tell him to buy me any extra fruits and vegetables, because he LOVES buying in bulk. When I got there he had a case of mango and avocados. He also had tons of greens and melons. I knew it was going to be easy for me to make meals at his house.

My father is a great cook, he enjoys thinking of new recipes especially when family comes to visit. We got there at night and my dad had this huge meal on the table. I wasn't at all surprised even though it was 9:30 PM. My son and I ate a small amount and went to bed.

The next morning at breakfast I told him that I started only eating fruits and vegetables during the day and a cooked meal at night. He just said OK. I was so happy that he didn't say anything negative about it. I told him I had a lot more energy eating this way. It made me so happy that he just listened to what I had to say and was positive and supportive.

I had only been high raw for a few weeks at that point so it was scary to get out of my comfort zone and travel. It turned out to be such a great trip, my Dad is so awesome. But I always knew that. I made fresh guacamole everyday at lunch with fresh limes from my Dad's lime tree and herbs from his garden. He took me to an Asian market to buy young cocnuts. It was so easy to be raw at his house.

The airplane ride home turned out to be a success too. I got a huge salad and a few bananas and I was set. It was a great trip and it turned out I was worried for no reason. What else is new?

Eat your greens... and your children will too

Photo taken by wsilver

Lately I've been noticing that my son is eating more vegetables. I think it's because he sees me eat giant salads for lunch and dinner. He even tried raw cauliflower yesterday! He has always loved eating fruit but he only likes a few veggies. I made him a small salad today and he ate the whole thing. I was so happy and proud that my good choices were rubbing off on him.
I feel much more even tempered since I've gone high raw. If my 6 year old ate more raw foods I'm sure it will have the same effect on him. Which would be great since his a bundle of energy ALL the time.

So I think the best way to get children to eat more vegetables is for parents to eat more. Actions speak louder than words.

My high raw life

Photo taken by sweetbeetandgreenbean

Transitioning to a raw diet was easy in some ways and more difficult in others. After being raw until dinner for just two days I no longer craved coffee. I also lost my appetite for dairy and sugar as well. Just by eating more fresh fruits and veggies I no longer craved some things that I wanted to cut out of my diet anyway. This was fantastic!

The funny thing is I always thought I had a pretty good diet. I didn't eat hydrogenated fats, I always got organic snacks, and I ate fruits and vegetables everyday. I never realized how much processed foods I was eating. Yes they were organic and made with good ingredients, but they were still processed.

It was however hard to break the news to my husband, he supported me but I could tell he was worried about it just a little. After all we both loved to go to restaurants and try new foods. We also liked to stay in once in a while and drink wine and cook together. How could we still do this if I was on a high raw diet?

Part of the reason I did not go 100% raw right away was because I still liked doing all that stuff. I wanted to have the option of eating what I wanted for dinner. I have only been high raw for 2 months and I must say I don't like cooked foods as much as I use to.

I think it was a good decision for me to take it slowly and be raw until dinner. Now I have a few days out of the week that I am 100% raw and some days where I will eat cooked food at dinner. The longer I eat raw the more I naturally don't crave some of the foods I once loved. Sometimes it's good to take things slowly.

I'm not a good vegetarian

I tried to go that route and it just did not work for me. I loved eating fruits and vegetables, but I did not like traditional vegetarian sources of protein.

I tried many different tofu recipes. Since they all contained soy sauce, they all started to taste the same after a while. I also tried to eat tempeh,I did not like the texture at all. I tried many different types of soy sausages. I just didn't like them. I was not into "impostor foods".

During my brief period on this vegetarian diet I gained weight. I was eating too much cheese, pasta and bread. And I'm not even a pasta lover. I needed a change, because this was not working. Plus I was making two dinners every night. One for my meat eating family and one for me. I started to detest cooking!

Then one day I was on Twitter and someone who I was following put up a link to a raw food blog. I watched the video she posted and I decided it was time to change my diet.

Going raw has been in the back of my mind for years, but I just didn't know how to do it. Could you really live on salads and be healthy? I decided to give it a try.

The next morning I had a raw breakfast and lunch, I decided to be "raw until dinner" until I felt comfortable with my new diet. I have been on this diet ever since.

Here is a link to the blog that got me started on my raw food journey. Her blog is one of my favorites.