Raw In Nicaragua

In the past I have had real hard time eating raw, or mostly raw, or mostly vegan. Leaving for this trip I was determined to do better...and I have.

I brought with me a small travel blender, a coffee grinder, goji berries, cacao, nuts, seeds, and whole wheat spaghetti. This has made all the difference. I've had no problem eating fruits for breakfast and now that I have a refrigerator (I rented an apartment with a kitchen) I am keeping lots of lettuce and making large salads every day.

One big lesson I learned today: bananas are plentiful and healthy, but not a lot of fun to eat every day. Today I used them to make my green smoothie. Tasted great with a little pineapple and romaine. That leaves me a lot of other fruit to eat later on when I get hungry again. Then I'll have goji berries and cacao for lunch and some brocholi.

I confess that I have been eating meat at one meal a day. I just haven't figured out how to replace dinner. I dont' have other options like I do at home. If anyone has suggestions please send them. I know, I could just not eat any more and be satisfied with fruit and veggies. I will try. Maybe fasting would help. Or popcorn.

Inspiration

I limped to the finish line of 2007. The Holidays were a struggle, especially having to eat out frequently. But that is over, I've learned some lessons there and now I'm ready to begin the new year. While I often did not eat as I know I should have I am building on what I learned this past year and moving forward.

And one of the lessons learned in 2007 was that success comes from being motivated. Most of my motivation last year came from the many books I read. Yesterday it came from watching a video. I highly recommend Get Healthy Now! available on Vegsource.com. Over 13 hours of inspiration on this video. I would buy it if only for the talk by my favorite doctor Joel Fuhrman, M.D.

Dr. Fuhrman gives practical information on how to actually go about eating healthy meals. His four food groups are Salads, Soups, Smoothies, and Sorbets. He gives directions for making great salad dressings, all kinds of healthy soups, green smoothies, and sorbets that may make me forget about ice cream. The best thing is that he provides outlines for the basics for all of these meals. I got totally inspired because most importantly he gave me hope, now I could see what I actually could make to eat and how to do it.

In 2007 I learned what not to eat and to eat as much raw food as possible. My resolution for 2008 is to learn what I can eat and how to prepare healthy delicious meals. This video from Vegsource is the beginning. After that...I think I'll take some "uncooking" classes.

For me the key is to get inspired, at least long enough until my food choices become habit and the old ways are totally gone. This is a start.

I read this recently on the Going Raw Yahoo Group. It is one of the clearest descriptions of what to eat and how to improve one's health. I love its simplicity, directness, and intuitive honesty. It rings full of truthfulness.

One person's approach to health:

No drugs, simply plants 50% raw, 50% cooked either steamed, blanched
or stir fried in very little oil. Zero processed foods, no cheating,
no odd ball super foods / fad foods. A little DHEA, B-12 & D all
from vegan sources, a little sun, a little walking, nothing extreme.
Been several years now, heard all the stars of the raw movement and
arrived at my own theory, which is that it is way more important what
you do not eat, than what you do eat. Theory on what to eat is the
widest possible variety of plants, as Fuhrman points out plants
contain important phytonutrients and barely 5% have been identified,
so don't get stuck eating mostly the same dozen plants, try to eat
ALL of them.

I find the longer I do it, the more I cut back on transitional stuff
like nuts, avocados, etc., I still eat them, just not a lot of them.

After several years, the authors and things I suggest most are:
ravediet.com
drfuhrman.com
drmcdougal.com
heartattackproof.com

chinastudy.com

I happen to be more scientifically than emotionally oriented and
personally believe that there is a lot of really bad science in the
raw business. I trust the info at the above places. When people
tell me about theories from the 30's where all current study is in
some obscure place in a foreign language, my eyes glaze over.

As I have said before, I find no need to justify eating this way. My
heath was very bad and I was about to go over the cliff, I started
eating this way and everything got better quickly and the problems
went away. People ask me what the specific mechanisms are that are
responsible as though there is some sort of "active ingredient". I
reply that the specific scientific mechanism is that I stopped
eating crap, dead and decaying stuff and started eating 100% plants,
there ya go, the whole scientific explanation.

I think a highly overlooked factor is eating LARGE quantities of raw
plant fiber (thanks to Vitamix it's easy). Someone (MD) told me you
should eliminate something that looks like it came from an elephant
and it should take you about 10 seconds to so. This goes to the
various thoughts on colon stuff, which is basically that eating tons
of raw plant fiber is like eating a couple pounds of ground up scotch
brite pads, that ought to keep you pretty well scrubbed out without
doing anything else.

Seems to me that there is no point studying it in more detail, as
further study just seems to reinforce what we already know... the
leaner you are the longer you live, the lower your cholesterol the
fewer diseases you get. Refer to China Study, eat what the people
that are the healthiest, longest lived people eat. Want facts, buy
Fuhrman's "Eat To Live" and study the extensive footnotes (that guy
is a real scientist).

There is plenty of study on what to do, people don't need to study it
more, they just need to do it and be strict about it. Sure folks can
go off on their tangents as long as they are under the umbrella
of "eat plants" and everything should be fine.

Happy Holidays
Mark

It Ain't Easy

Yikes! I thought it was hard being as raw as possible here in Westerly. Living away from home was ten times as hard! Five weeks in Nicaragua followed by the Christmas Holidays. It could have been worse, but...

In Nicaragua, living in a hostel room, without hot water, I did my best. I kept a supply of pineapples, watermelon, bananas, and oranges in my window. Breakfast was no problem. What came after was. There were no green leafy vegetables to be had. I could get a mixed salad of cabbage, carrots, onions, and peppers, and often had that for lunch, but that was not filling.

I was able to get a fresh young coconut most days, either in the market in Leon, or from one of the young girls selling them on the beach. That was filling. But, after that, my choices for dinner were not good. I succumbed to eating animals.

On the plane home from Nicaragua all I could think about was having a big salad with green leaf lettuce and Gina's raw creamy balsamic dressing with flaxseed powder on top.

Being home has not helped. For one reason or another I've had to eat out almost every night and I have had problems there. Even when I ordered a Veggie Focaccia Sandwich at 84 High Street Cafe, they sent it with chicken.

So, my blood pressure is up, my weight is up, and so is my determination to figure out a way to make this work!

Tonight, I am going out to dinner with my kids. I promise you, I am going have so much salad before I leave this house that I will not be able to eat anything bad. Okay, I am allowing myself a little sushi, that's raw, isn't it?

What a freaking struggle this is. It's a struggle, but it isn't that bad. It's just that you always have to pay attention, bad habits just so easily work their way back into your life. I feel like I'm in a tug of war for what goes into my mouth. The minute I look the other way, poof, some dead animal ends up working its way through my digestive system. And neither of us are happy about that. There has to be a better way, and I am determined to find it. Meanwhile, I'm drinking my green smoothies and munching my huge green salads. I'm on the path, I just have to get farther along.

It's Such A Struggle, Or Am I Just Not Trying

The purpose of this blog is to share, truthfully, the difficulties of changing my diet and becoming more of a raw foods person. So here is where I tell about how I seem to be going backwards.

I don't feel as if I'm eating worse, but the fact that I've gained back 4 of the 13 pounds I had lost says something. And Saturday night I went out to dinner with Cathy and ate half of one of those "blooming opinions." Then had a chicken sandwich and fries.

I am definitely struggling. I can do breakfast and lunch raw with no problem. It's dinner and after. (And going out to eat.) If I am going to do this I have to come up with alternative meals. Eating cooked foods and other things after super is taking away from all the good I am doing before dinner. The challenge is simple: I have to put the effort into learning how to make actual meals and making them for dinner. Until then I will not get to the next level of raw foods and healthy living. I will get to this, it's just a matte of time. There is no turning back.

Tomorrow I begin my winter traveling, I start with five weeks in Nicaragua. There is no way I can make raw meals there. This is going to prove a real challenge. I'll try to live mostly on fruits, veggies, salads, nuts, and seeds. It'll be dinner that will be the real challenge. I'll keep you posted.

Temptation Everywhere!

I just barely escaped...from my parents house. I have told them a thousand times: "I do not want to eat cooked food, and definitely no meat!" So, of course, I come over for a short Sunday visit and the first thing my mom says is: "Want some pizza, I've saved some pizza for you?"

"No mom, I don't want any pizza."

Then my dad: "How about a taco?" They've got Taco Bell bags on the counter.

"No dad, I don't want a taco. How about that game last night?"

It has not been a good week. It had been two weeks since my last burger and fries and it was Friday night with nothing to do except go out and eat half a pound of ground up cow. I hated myself the next morning. On top of that I've been slowly eating some of the Halloween candy I bought for next week. I knew I should have left it over at my mom's house.

So here is the story. I really, really, want to eat a raw food diet. I know that my health depends on it. I have been motivating myself by reading all the books and joining a yahoo group on raw foods. I am immersed in it. But I am really struggling. (Am I sounding like an addict?) What else can I do? Maybe I'm being to easy on myself. I cut myself too much slack. It is so easy to go backwards.

When you cut out animal foods, cooked foods, sweets, ice cream, geeze...that doesn't leave you with much except fruit and salads...and nuts. The only hope, as I see it from this hole that I've dug for myself, is to dive into the recipe books and start making some tasty foods. The only problem with that is...I've never been much of a cook. Popcorn and cooking on the grill was about the extent of my chef skills. Anyhow, I don't have a choice, I can't go back to eating meat and rewarding myself with Ben and Jerry's ice cream. I'm gonna have to find my way around the kitchen.

Raw Spirit Festival - The Payoff

Sunday

I spent most of Sunday attending cooking classes. This was great. I learned the basics of making raw dinners, salads, and deserts. Most of all, I learned the importance of experimenting. Try to include the five tastes (bitter, sweet, sour, salty, and spicy) in everything you prepare. Use a lot of cayenne pepper, tumeric, yacon powder. In recipes, use avocado instead of butter, macadamia nuts instead of dairy.

I did attend one lecture on Sunday, it was given by Matt Monarch. This was titled: Advanced Raw Living Talk. I figured that should be interesting. Matt walks around the stage like a rock star. So, what do you think is the key to advanced raw living? You guessed it...colonics. And lots of them! I swear to god, these people have issues! I walked right out of that talk, I'm not ever going to be an advanced raw person. I like my shit just the way it is.

Enough of the criticisms. While some of the big name speakers were less than impressive, the many people that I got to meet while waiting in the long dinner lines made the whole trip worth while. Here are some of their bits of wisdom, hard-earned over many years:

1. It takes time to change. I spoke to many people who had been raw for more than ten years. They all told of what a struggle it was in the beginning and that it took years before they ever became 100% raw, if in fact they were 100% at all. It seems that more than a few do eat some cooked food, but don't talk about it.
2. Don't beat yourself up about eating cooked foods some times. The idea isn't to be 100% raw, the idea is to be 100% healthy.
   
3. Don't think that just because it is raw it is good for you. Too much fat from nuts, seeds, avocados, hinders utilization of carbs from fruit.
4. Don't listen to everyone, experiment, see what works for you. We are all different. Most of all...don't go to extremes.
5. Make sure you take a B12 supplement, no matter what anyone says, if you are being vegan.

So, my trip wasn't the most fun thing I've done this year, but, it was inspiring. There were plenty of ups and downs, however, what I learned will bring me to the next step in my raw food journey. More importantly, it will help me to become more healthy. And that should be the number one goal.