Thursday, April 23, 2009

Raw Week - Day 3 and 4

Sorry for the delayed blog! My computer was on the fritz last night and I just got it back from my IT department. So let me back up and take you through 2 more days of my raw food journey. Yesterday morning I needed a little treat to get me going. I decided to whip up a variation of my favorite smoothie from Bolocco - the Jimmy Carter. At Bolocco its made with frozen yogurt, banana, and peanut butter. Its amazing but I rarely get them because they're a million calories. Here are the ingredients in my version.

Almond milk, chia seeds, almond butter, hemp protein powder. 1 banana, a little agave nectar, and a scoop of raw cacao powder. I also blended all this with a couple ice cubes.


It was very chocolaty and tasty. And it kept me full until 11:30! At that time I snacked on some raw blended oat groats mixed with strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries.


I mixed in a little tepid water to thin this out a bit. I also had a cup of warm water tea with almond milk. Lunch was another buffet with Liz!

I had several of our raw taco wraps - which I'm now calling Rawcos.

I'm still liking this lunch! For dessert I had a Brawnie.

I've been doing ok managing the raw food until I get to dinner. That's the toughest part of the day. I had an apple and a few nuts in the afternoon.

When it came time for making dinner, I could not bear to spend another hour running perfectly good ingredients through the food processor to turn them into poop. I just made a big simple salad.


This had mixed greens, grape tomatoes, radishes, red peppers, avocados, grapes, broccoli, and bean sprouts with a apple cider vinegar and EVOO dressing.

This morning I made another tasty smoothie. Unfortunately, the hemp protein powder made it green.


This had almond milk, 1 banana, hemp protein powder, frozen mangoes, and frozen pineapple. It tasted like a tropical cocktail! Without the rum, though. 8AM is too early even for me.

Again, this smoothie held me over for several hours until I ate my oat groats with berries. I was pretty slammed at work today and didn't end up taking any pictures. But lunch was the same Rawcos as yesterday, with a Brawnie in the afternoon, along with a few grapes and some snow peas.

Work was kind of stressful today, and by the time I got home I was exhausted, cranky, and felt like crap. And the last thing I wanted to do was prepare and eat a raw meal. I felt like if I had to eat another raw vegetable I would scream. So I gave up. And ordered sushi. So...at least I was eating raw fish? Yeah, I know that's a total cop out. But after 4 days, I think I've eaten enough raw food to know that this is not for me. The promises of abundant amounts of positive energy have not been fulfilled. I'm tired and angry. And the whole thing about raw food being easier to digest? Well, I guess my body needs more time to get used to it, but I'm definitely not seeing that. This diet is just too extreme for me. I generally consider myself a really healthy eater, but a diet this drastic is causing me to want to go to the opposite extreme and I'm craving totally unhealthy food. Extremes are not good for me. I need balance.

So, I'm waiving the white flag. I'm throwing in the towel. It was an interesting experiment, and I'm glad I tried it out because I was really curious about this lifestyle, but a raw food diet is just not for me. However, I am hoping to explore more raw food recipes in a more sane manner. Where I can try them a few times a week because I want to, not because I have to.

And man, doesn't this sushi look good? It was so worth it.

1 comment:

  1. Nice try, Gretchen. It looks like a lot of planning and preparation. You lasted 4 days and you didn't totally cop out. I'll be looking for more recipes. How about Robin's scone recipe now that your back to baking? BTS

    ReplyDelete