Saturday, March 31, 2007

Days 8 and 9: Spring, Glorious Spring!

The last two days have been a bit weird. I think it's related to the "D" word, the word of the hour these days: DETOXING. From all I've read about shifting one's diet from cooked to mainly raw -- what slowly begins to happen is that the body's cells -- little worlds unto themselves -- all start doing housecleaning. The problem is they all start doing it at the very same time, which has some interesting effects. The whites of my eyes are turning gray ... I'm tired at 8:00 p.m. (NEVER happens) ... my skin is breaking out ... and I'm feeling a wee bit "down" at times during the day. It's just a blah sort of thing creeping in and out, nothing sustaining. Vedy interesting.

And also very encouraging.

Okay, here's a layperson's summary of why the body get's so tired when it's detoxing: It's busy getting rid of crap that's been stored in it for years. It's finally freed up to do so because it doesn't have to spend all it's energy breaking down new food coming in (often three times a day) -- food that's cooked ("dead") and processed, so it's void of helping enzymes. Cooked foods have no living enzymes of their own to help in the digestive process, so the body has to work double time to break them down. It's why many people fall asleep after big dinners. The body is just plum-tuckered out from all the effort it takes!

It's also why people's glands get messed up (for me it was the thyroid): because they're all working overtime trying to correct the imbalances the bombardment of dead food actually causes within the body. The cool thing about living food are enzymes. They help break foods down easily. Then nutrients get sent to the right places in the body to vitally sustain us.

Day 8: I ate mainly salads and fruits -- with some nuts and seeds for snacks and some purchased raw snacks -- something called Rawios (Oreo-type "cookies" made from ground nuts, dried fruits and honey.) Also had some raw "crackers" -- purchased in a store, made from ground seeds and are crunchy by being dehydrated at a low-level warm setting rather than oven-baked. Interesting tastes ... one was Italian flavor and another had orange and ginger. Skipped the PowerWash.

Day 9: Today was fruit in the morning, green drink in the late afternoon. I put two "shots" of wheat grass juice in my green drink today. Talk about a buzz. That stuff is potent. Also very bitter if you don't cut it with something sweet. Tonight it's angelhair pasta made from yellow squash and zuccini. It looks exactly like pasta ... I have a cute little gizmo that lets you do that, called a spiral slicer.

  • spiral slicer

  • I make a simple "marinara sauce" out of fresh plum tomatoes, garlic, spices, yellow and red peppers, a handful of pre-soaked sun-dried tomatoes and a few presoaked dates. Amazingly good. Well, I'm off to do just that -- make my pasta and sauce. Then it's "EastEnders" ... and beddy-bye.

    On my way to picking up a few items this afternoon (treated myself to a fancy bicycle pump), I realized that the highlight of today was the day itself: the incredible sounds, smells and sights of SPRING! How I love Spring. I must have passed about 6 full-on-babbling brooks today, and each was more splendid then the next. This Hudson River Valley is simply gorgeous. I am stunned with gratitude at times, living in this beauty, and today was one of those days.