Thursday, June 30, 2011

Raw Days 28-30

Today is already the last day of my "mostly raw for 30 days" experiment!

I really can't believe it's been a month.  And what a cool month! 

I learned that eating raw foods, at least in the way I wanted to, meant that in many ways I needed to re-learn how to prepare dishes.  Even things like salads took on a whole new dimension, because I not only wanted to make them chock-full of nutrients, but chock-full of flavour!  I refuse to prepare foods with no flavour, that are boring to eat.  There's no reason whatsoever to eat boring foods, when there are so many herbs and spices out there!  Thousands and thousands!!

I learned that there is a lot more to the raw food lifestyle than carrot sticks and salads.  I had hoped there was, but we all know that people don't necessarily eat "spherically", which means that if someone decided to eat only raw foods, without doing it properly, they COULD just eat salads and carrot sticks.  Of course they wouldn't be very healthy, because they wouldn't be consuming a nutritionally-balanced diet, and I of course wanted to avoid that.

Because I never jump into anything major without first looking into it, and if it looks intriguing, researching it to get to know all its ins and outs, I came at this month with a decent preliminary knowledge of what to do.  Of course I continued to read and gather recipes all through June, so my repertoire grew and continues to grow!  It's incredible the variety of raw dishes out there!!

Most interestingly, I learned that my body really loves raw food!  After just a few days, my skin became radiant, clear, and healthy-looking.  I began to sleep better.  My mood stabalized (not that I was a crazy person or anything!  Really!).  My cravings also stabalized.

And because it's currently the growing season here, I saved money!!  Yes, you read right--I have been spending on average 30% less each week on food.  No guff.  

Also interestingly, on days when I consumed only raw green and other smoothies during the day (making sure to get all the food I need of course--it was just in liquid form), I found that I was even more energetic, even at the gym.  I wasn't hungry on smoothie days either, which was kind of a surprise at the time, but now I realize that just because I was drinking liquids, there was no reason to be hungry, because it was lots of food--it was just in a more digestible form!  That was a HUGE surprise, let me tell you!

I didn't find it difficult to maintain eating mostly raw this month, because I didn't set an amount that I HAD to consume.  I just ate lots!  If it wasn't as possible on some days, that was OK.  If I'd set an amount, say 75% raw, that I MUST stick to each and every day, I would have been stressed out all the time about making sure I got it all in.  And if I had a day where I was only 60%, I would have felt bad about it.  So I just ate as much as a could, which sometimes meant 100% raw days, and sometimes 50%.  It's all good!

The verdict? 

I'm definitely going to continue, especially during the growing season.  I still want to take full advantage of all the loveliness around this time of the year!  And since my body loves it, why not right?

So keep checking back!  I'm not going anywhere! 

See you soon!

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