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.

Day 7 - Zen on the MetroNorth

Well my first week draws to a close, and I'm amazed that it wasn't at all difficult to stay away from meats, breads, cereals, dairy products, and processed packaged foods (like crackers, rice cakes, etc.)! You know how they say "timing is everything"? I think some things in life you just have to be ready for. I was ready for this.

Today's culinary treats: three delicious nut/date/fig balls early in the day; then my faithful green juice drink (think I'll dub that the "PowerWasher," as it has a mucho roto-rooter, whisk-broomish effect); and a large salad of about 10 kinds of veggies. It's 8:00 p.m. and I'm still satisfied ... not hungry at all. I'll have a couple of handfulls of nuts and dried fruit as I watch my fave show, "Gray's Anatomy," and then call it a night.

I'm looking forward this weekend to making some funky sorta meals -- because if I don't create some variety, I run the risk of getting bored with salads.

Are you snoozing yet? (Maybe I should've made this an old fashioned hand-written diary, just for me, after all. )

PS: I met someone on the train this morning who was politically of the same mind and we got to chatting. The conversation led to a discussion of religion and I ended up learning all about Zen ... as this person, formerly a Roman Catholic, was now leaning very Eastern in his views. He was clear that it wasn't Buddhism he was enthralled by, but Taoism. He summed his beliefs up this way ... there is no "meaning" to things, per se, they just are. To which I inquired: "So would you say, then, that life is meaningless?" To which he responded, "Yes." Hmmmm. Zen on the MetroNorth.

Days 5 and 6: Off to the Ashram ... Not!

Day 5: Well yesterday was remarkable in its unremarkability. I enjoyed my usual green drink for breakfast and did the big salad thing for lunch. Had to run down to the East Village to get a few items at my favorite hippie/raw food/save-the-world store and then headed home. What I noticed is just how satisfied I can be on food that's alive. I wasn't even hungry for dinner! About 9:00 p.m. I had a few crackers made from flax seeds and Italian seasonings and a handful of raisens and nuts. That was it.

By the way, that green drink is loaded: juice from kale, spinich, cucumber, parsley, celery and carrot. It is amazingly filling ... because it's nutrient dense. I happen to actually like the taste of it too. One reason a person overeats is because literally the body is still "searching" for the nutrients it needs. Give it the nutrients it needs and the body whispers (in a sense), "I'm fine ... don't need anything else right now."

Day 6: It's noon, I've had two bananas for breakfast and am about to do the green drink thing for lunch. I have to say, I feel a bit "spacey" in a good way about a half hour after downing one of those. I can almost feel good things going on inside my cells. That may sound very weird, but it's true when it comes to fresh vegetable juice. It's because it's so concentrated and liquid easily gets assimilated into the bloodstream -- kinda like drinking booze on an empty stomach, only it doesn't kill off your brain cells!

Speaking of killing off brain cells -- glial cells (I think that's the name for brain cells, if I remember my anatomy and physiology class) are the only ones in the body that don't reproduce themselves, and they're killed off by booze. Actually, that fact wasn't learned in my A & P class; I read it about 30 years ago in a Reader's Digest article, I am Joe's Brain (pancreas, kidney, etc., each month they featured a different part of "Joe's" body.) I remember 'cause I used to hang out at The Marine House up in Kilburn in London, and threw back my share of some pretty potent concoctions with the Embassy Guard. After I read that article I adopted a two-drink limit! It was a drastic decision ... that I only occasionally threw to the wind. Never realized till now that I have Reader's Digest to thank for this well-preserved brain of mine. Who'da thunk?

For dinner, had a scrumptious salad with about 10 different veggies in it (and a sliced, hard-boiled egg). I gingerly opened the seal on a dark bottle of "raw organic extra virgin olive oil" (yup, the price was sky-high, but the bottle will last over a month of salads) ... made a simple dressing with it, lemon and apple cider vinegar. What I'm really most surprised about is how satisfied I am eating mainly just vegetables at meals. I'm starting to feel almost a light-headedness at times during the day ... like something is shifting ... but I haven't a clue what that something is just yet. Time will tell. So far it's been easy-peasy. I suppose anything done for six days would be. I'll take easy any day, though.

Minus 30 Years ... or Comin' Around Again

Ten days ago I turned 53. Has anyone ever awakened on their 53rd birthday and said, "I'd love to mentally and emotionally just lop off 30 years of my life and begin to finish now what I actually started then?" Has anyone else, upon finding themselves in their early 50's, just decided to "act as if" they were 23 again? Has anyone else ever decided to simply declare a "do over" of sorts in their lives? Well, I have. With regard to my physical health -- and certain aspects of my emotional and spiritual life -- I have declared an official "do over." (I think of Carley Simon's song, "Comin' Around Again," and I say to myself, "Yup, that's me.")

I wanted a place where I could record this somewhat radical "trip" I'm on and have a day-to-day "snapshot" for myself of what it's like to go from eating what's known as the "standard American diet" (the SAD diet!) to eating virtually only living food -- food before General Mills gets ahold of it. I also wanted a place where I could write about the amazing emotional and spiritual changes "acting as if I were 23 again" might reveal. Someone suggested I "blog" about it. So here I am a bloggin. (Originally, I was going to keep a journal just for myself, albeit in blog form. But I'm making it public for those who may be considering doing the same thing. Maybe some of the things I learn as I go will help them in their own "grand experiment"!)

Mainly, this blog will be a place where I recap my day-to-day experiences of leaving the sad diet behind and eating "live" food instead. I want to see if I begin to have any extraordinary surge in energy and vitality, not only in my physical stamina, but mentally and spiritually, as well. I want to see if my eyesight improves (I'd love to chuck my glasses)! I want to see if my bones get stronger ... and ligaments and tendons, too (I still can tell when it'll rain because my knee that got messed up in a taxi accident aches just before the rain comes!) Anyway, it's my grand experiment. I have no goal weight I want to achieve; no target time frame within which to accomplish anything. I just want optimum health, and I'm curious as to how that will show up in my bod, soul and spirit.

I've finally headed out on this living foods adventure ... it's been months in the making. One day at a time, eating food that grows -- it's gotta be simple, right?

A lot of people helped me get to this place, to this "experiment" -- where I'm willing to forego a roast chicken and baked potato for a lovely, vibrant salad. Those people are the healthy folks who've walked this path before me and took the time to write about it, talk about it, teach about it, blog about it and in general share their experiences going raw. They are too many to name now, but they will make their appearance here via links and references throughout this diary. (Mainly, it was my beautiful daughter who got me to this place -- but that will require a book, not merely a blog, to express!)

A little history of where I've been ...

When a woman's body is carrying around a whole lot more weight than she needs, lots of things are going on for her. Mostly -- and sadly -- a steady mantra in her own soul that she is "huge" ... or "matronly" ... or "disgusting." Couple that with a lot of other people thinking the same things about overweight women, and that woman has a virtual guaranty she'll stay stuck in that unhealthy place for quite some time. Self-criticism, beating one's self up mentally, actually reinforces the very things one is trying to break free of. In my life, I have "been there, done that" (as the expression goes). I'm not there any more because I realized something profound: What we continually think we are, we become even MORE of.

This past year, as I've gotten more and more healthy, I "toyed" with going raw, but never felt fully committed to it. Thought it might be too drastic, something one could get obsessive about -- and thus become quite obnoxious to be around in mixed company. But the more I learned, read, and felt intuitively, the more I realized that this was the next step for me. About a month ago, while reading Living on Live Food by Alissa Cohen, I became profoundly convinced that to go even further along this road to optimum health, living food is the way for me.

For all of five days now, I've been on a 95% "raw diet" (virtually zero cooked food). Already, I'm noticing some very positive things. My intention is not to be 100% raw, as that is a sure-fire way to failure, I think. My intention is to eat living food rather than cooked food as often as possible. Period.

And now to the grand experiment!

Day 1: I was psyched, joyful, confident ... enjoying the simple pleasure of knowing that what I'm eating is actually helping me and not harming me. No room there to guilt one's self about anything. I like that. (btw, cooked foods make the body work harder to digest everything, to break down the food and deliver nutrients to the cells. Live foods help the cells receive nutrients easier and faster.)

Day 2: Even more psyched. Knowing it's totally possible to change habits of many years and to not be burdened by doing so.

Day 3: Asking myself, "Can I really live like this every day? ... then realizing what a bizarre question that really is! It's real food, the way God designed it. It grows, we pick it, we dress it up a wee bit, and then we eat it. What's truly bizarre is that what I've known since age 20 has taken me 30 years to fully embrace!

Day 4: Today. Could be my imagination, but I noticed how deliciously unique the taste of each vegetable is (seems to have become "Vegetable Appreciation Day" for me). I'm glad. Eating food in its basic form isn't "hard" to do. It's just different. Here's a huge difference: it's not man-handled in factories and plants and processed and "fortified" with supposed "natural" flavorings. And ... it has no unpronounceable chemicals in it.

I decided I'd give my friend, Deenie, a call -- she's a raw foods chef -- and ask if she might want to be my "mentor" as I make this transition. It would be cool if she's game (ha, ha ... "game" ... we'll have none of that now, will we).