22-Day Raw Food Challenge

This 22-day raw food diet followed my first ever raw food experiment: 7-days raw.

These notes were not originally written with this website in mind, so the notes are quite brief and not very well explained. My later raw food diet and other experiments have better notes.

First Day on the 22-Day Raw Food Diet

29th April 2011

• Have not drank any tea or coffee or hot drinks for one month, happy about this, makes everyday life less complicated, feels like it was a (mental) addiction.
• Weight 58kg today, varies between 57-60kg day to day (9.0-9.4 stones, 126-132 lbs).
• Breakfast: smoothie with wheatgrass, apple, dates, seeds; and separately: cordyceps, water.
• Lunch: tabbouleh salad: lots of parsley, quite a lot of okra, some tomato, green onions, lemon juice, salt, pepper, olive oil. Very nice. Water, cordyceps.
• Bath with MSM soap and dry brushing in the morning. (I don't use the soap much because don't believe in it.)
• Very tired during the day, don't seem to wake up, possibly because beers, pasta, bread and take-away cheese-and-tomato croissant yesterday.
• Was getting quite irritable and moody before eating (for no reason) but eating helped. [Later note: this is probably caused by blood-sugar imbalance.]
• Bad cough and lots of phlegm (mucus), seems to be caused by beer (allergy to barley, hops or yeast?), blocked nose. [Later note: sugar causes phlegm - alcohol is a form of sugar. It also feeds infections.]

Jump to Conclusions

2nd Day on the Raw Food Diet

30th April 2011

• No detox symptoms whatsoever, apart from sleeping long nights, around 10 hours per night throughout the 'bank holiday' weekend.
• Breakfast: smoothie.
• Snack: a friend made me a smoothie with frozen bananas, acai berry juice, figs, water, with her Vitamix juicer.
• Snack 2: Pulsin 'Bliss Bar', ingredients: dates, cashew butter, brown rice malt, raw cacao (12%), cacao butter (5%), maca (2000mg), brown rice powder, sunflower lecithin, vanilla pods, ashwaganda root (200mg), sea salt, green tea extract.
• Linseed, tomato, onion, celery, water - dehydrated bread, with guacamole.
• Some cashew kream and raspberry jam (home-made) with the above bread (didn't go very well).
• Kale crisps, very oily and salty :-o
• Ate my last meal quite late.
• Feeling cold in the evening only, hot bath helped.

3rd Day on Raw Foods

1st May - "Vappu" (May Day)

• Developed a small headache towards the end of the day, due to hunger I guess, waited to eat dinner for too long, hot bath helped to some degree, then went to bed around 11pm, normally sleep at 10pm.
• Went for a long walk in the windy sunny weather with bf, sat in the pub in a park without drinking anything, enjoying the sun (very warm), later got grounded at a local park.
• Breakfast: apple and linseed 'bread' with cashew nut kream and raspberry jam (raspberries and maple syrup), snacking on these through the day, green smoothie with banana and wheatgrass, goji berries, seeds...
• Lunch: Tabbouleh salad, without okra this time, unfortunately.
• Snack: Pulsin 'Bliss Bar'
• Dinner: Big salad with green leaves, cucumber, red radishes, green pepper, nama shoyu, pepper, salt, olive oil, lemon, kohlrabi, etc. Ate at about 7pm, just water after.
• Feeling cold in the evening only, hot bath helped

Jump to Conclusions at the end of this article.

4th Day of Raw Food Diet

Monday Bank Holiday - 2nd May 2011

• Weight 57kg.
• Breakfast: smoothie: wheatgrass powder 3 tbsp, pumpkin seeds, golden linseeds, 1 tbsp goji berries, a few cashew nuts, dates, water.
• Very tired all morning.
• Lunch: a cherry-tomato pasta with courgette.
• Slept so much today, only time I've been more tired (with no physical straining or sleep deprivation) has been after a deep tissue massage. I slept some 10 hours last night (12 hours the night before) after couple of hours being awake I felt very tired still, and took a nap of at least 2.5 hours. Now it's 8pm, just had a salad, and still not very awake, but better. Sun is setting.
• I thought I felt some nice energy movements in my body today

6th Day Raw Food Diet

Wednesday - 4th May

• Weight 57kg.
• No cravings, apart from tiny moments of contemplating pasta or pastries, but easy to overcome.
• First day of taking MSM powder (sulphur), 1/4 tablespoon in the evening. Will take this twice a day for a week, then increase dosage. The MSM sinks in water, supposedly meaning that it is pure. Recommended dosage 2-3x day 1000mg (2-3g) for the first week, and 3-6x 1000mg (3-6g) the next week. For curing conditions need to build up to 20g/ day [some say, but be careful]. One level teaspoon = 5 grams, one tablespoon = 10-15g. So my dosage today was 4g, and today will be 8g. Some raw foodists recommend building up to 2 tbsp/ day, this would be 30g.
• Hunger is easy to manage by now. Not much hunger feeling, no detox symptoms.
• I feel that my energy levels are getting a bit higher, especially in the evening, cycling is still hard work though.
• Dinner today: flax seed bread with guacamole and cheeze (raw vegan 'cheese', made with cashew nuts, nutritional yeast, salt), olives.
• Lunch: salad.
• Snack: an apple (organic, almost always).
• Breakfast: smoothie (500ml).

Jump to Conclusions

7th Day Raw Food Diet

• Felt very tired this morning, partly due to too little sleep, but also almost as if I had drank beer: dehydrated and hangover-tired. Not that bad but clearly noticeable compared to other raw mornings. I was thinking of 3 possible causes:
  - Last night's flaxseed crackers, they were not soaked very much at all, some not at all, before going in the dryer. Maybe they sucked water out of my system.
  - MSM powder, started it yesterday
  - Nutritional yeast in the cheeze
• Breakfast smoothie (with new ingredients): maca 1/2tbsp, 2 heaped tbsp organic wheatgrass powder, 1/4 tbsp MSM (suphur), 1 tbsp extra virgin organic coconut oil, an organic apple, 2 tbsp hemp seeds (ground), 1 tbsp sunflower seeds, 1 tbsp pumpkin seeds, 2 capsules caterpillar worm powder (cordyceps), filtered water.
• No dinner (but ate some nuts, olives and mango juice (non-raw) at work evening lecture).
• Very slight diarrhea at daytime. Generally elimination is regular (1-2 times per day, often in the mornings) and seems to be working well. Note that on McCombs diet I became constipated.

Jump to Conclusions

8th Day on Raw Foods

Fri 6th May

• Weight 57kg
• Morning note: up to today, no cravings, not much tiredness anymore, if anything a little more energy, no headaches, no irritability.
• Maca is possibly making me feel 'caffeinated', like being tired (at night) but not sleepy - or it could be the sulphur (MSM). Gonna keep taking both for a week and then leave them out one by one to see if there is a clear difference in how I feel.
• Still haven't started holosync meditation but planning to start.
• I'm looking forward to my double-chin to go!
• Dinner: guacamole on linseed crackers and cheese (let's see if I wake up tired tomorrow morning). MSM with water.
• Slight cravings today, nothing too bad.
• Not tired at all.
• Went to sunbed, 5 mins as usual.
• I thought my eyes looked a bit brighter today (already), prior to sunbed of course (it makes them a bit red).
• Possible detox symptom: feeling of coldness (evenings mostly but at work sometimes as well - though that might be due to aircon). And another one: somewhat red face, as if skin was dry but not dry (used coconut oil in the morning), and not due to heat because I was cold.
• Reading on day 7 of one-week raw food experiment before this one: It seems that the second time the diet is so much easier. I think a clear decision on start and end days, and what the 'rules' are helps, since last time I gave up to large extent due to supplements not arriving. I didn't want to prolong the already long diet for too long (McCombs would have been over 3 months - and during summer time!) Also, I must have obviously started detox the first time, and the second time it is easier.... let's hope it stays that way... [Later note: I was originally planning to redo the McCombs diet together with being 100% raw but decided against it because it would have been too difficult and demanding.]
• I just had a bath and put extra virgin organic coconut oil into my hair as a conditioner (before washing my hair). It smelled divine! Quite like coffee-flavoured fudge. I never liked the smell of coconut oil before, so this is either a clear sign that my sense of smell is changing (like it did when becoming a vegetarian) or it means that this coconut oil is much superior to previous products (ordered from Goji King). .... hmmm, if things will really start smelling this good then I can't wait for my sense of smell to develop more! Let's hope that's what it is. Although bf thought it smelled more 'chocolatey' too, hmmm... maybe his sense of smell is improving as well, what with the smoothies and organic fruit...

Jump to Conclusions

9th Day on Raw Foods

Sat 7th May

• First day as far as I can remember in my life when I voluntarily (and naturally) woke up at 7.30am! ... and got out of bed at 8.
• Had kombucha tea (cold fizzy drink) in the afternoon from health food shop, very nice and felt quite refreshing and balancing.
• Keep having hot baths every day.
• Soaking lots of seeds for nice dishes tomorrow.
• Breakfast: smoothie.
• Lunch: flax seed crackers, cherry tomatoes and cheeze (with nutritional yeast); courgette pasta with cheeze sauce (nutritional yeast, olive oil, sunflower seeds, quite a bit of salt and nama shoyu).
• Dinner, fruit salad.
• Snacks: kombucha, lemon water, msm water, Himalayan crystal salt (very little bit)
• Felt quite heavy after the flax seeds with cheeze and the cheezy pasta, even if they included lots of good vegetables. Maybe first time in my life felt like I was craving fruit. So I had to go and buy fruit at Wholefoods, and make a salad But kombucha tea already made me feel more balanced before the fruit salad even.
• Last meal, 10pm. Ooops.
• Belly doesn't feel as bloated anymore as sometimes but definitely far from ideal...
• The headaches at the beginning of the earlier, 7-day raw food effort seemed to come when I ate junk food AND a green smoothie and a big salad on the same day. My body must have tried to detox and retox at the same time. When I ate junk completely or raw and healthy completely, I didn't get headaches. Except some years back when I couldn't have a salad as a main course on any meal because I would get a headache. I always had to have something heavier as well. It felt somehow linked to this problem with coldness, a cold flat especially could make me feel irritated and give me a headache.
• Throat: phlegm still comes loose after eating, even after eating a fruit salad, a complete non-mucus food. Nose is a bit clearer. Cough persists, cordyceps hasn't seemed to cure it. But it is in capsules and who knows of the quality. And maybe I would need much larger dosages.... But it is expensive, oh well.
• Msm and maca seem to have made a difference in energy levels. Let's see tomorrow.
• Over one month now without hot drinks and without almost any caffeine. Apart from a random (raw) chocolate bar and today's kombucha had some green tea in it.

Jump to Conclusions

Day 12 of Raw Food Diet

Tue 10.5.2011

• Weight is still 57kg
• Skipped lunch yesterday, just had an apple and a banana. Not too difficult, slightly uncomfortable only.
• Some girl at work commented on how good I looked and on that I must have lost weight... I feel and look like I lost some but it doesn't show on the scales....

Day 13 of Raw Food Diet

Wed 11th May 2011

• This diet is easy, as long as have something nice for dinner and for the weekend to eat
• Hot baths every day, with a water filter, although it may be running out because I thought I smelled chlorine in the bath today
• Detox symptom: diarrhea today at work
• Supplements (undecenoic acid) finally arrived yesterday but too late - I'm not gonna do McCombs plan now. It's too long and too difficult and maybe unsafe to do (while 100% raw), especially over the summer time.
• This time I will be raw for 30 days and see how I feel. After that I might do another 30 days but, like I said, it's summer and I don't want to not drink all summer, or be able to indulge a little.
• I will probably let myself drink organic wine when I'm done with this. But not often, say once or twice a week. But I don't want to drink beer anymore.
• Alternatively I could change to a lifestyle of 6 days raw/ 1 day eat anything you like every week. I think it is too soon for me to try to be completely raw forever, and lack of money is an obstacle also, although, it does seem like I am saving quite a bit of money by being raw, by not buying pastries, pasta lunches at the work restaurant, beers, cheese and bread from the shop, crisps, chocolate bars...
• Also, what seems to immediately help with finances is ordering food online instead of in a shop (raw food has been termed to be the most expensive diet plan in the world...) What makes a big difference also is that I seem to be eating less during the day.
• I spent the whole day on Sunday cooking and first thought that making raw food is as time consuming as cooked ... but .... this food took me through much of the week with dinners. Truth is, I spend very little time cooking these days, and when I do cook it is quite exciting. Still have to wash a lot of dishes though. We need a dishwasher.
• Weight is staying steady 57kg
• Would love to have some kombucha tea again, or try the kefir grain drink.
• Some cravings today, for pasta, beer, wine... yesterday really wanted wine, it was a nice summer evening. Generally it's been very easy this time, however, not many cravings. But I am good with coming up with excuses, like 'organic wine is raw'.... Point is I guess this diet is as much about staying away from alcohol for 30 days as it is about staying raw and losing weight...
• As long as my belly is full I don't get many cravings. Today I had a very small dinner and feel hungry now.
• MSM powder and/or maca seem to be giving me more energy. Increased maca dosage today to 2 tsp/ day. Msm powder: 2 x 1/3 tbsp/ day.
• I drink a lot of water at work, no tea or hot drinks at all. Tomorrow I'm gonna try to have a smoothie for lunch, make it in the morning in a stainless steel bottle. Because I have a lot of work to do and want to work through lunch. The salad always takes such a long time to eat, don't have time to do much else. [Later note: I eventually got used to drinking just one smoothie for lunch, but didn't provide anywhere near enough calories and I noticed it becoming problematic in the long run. A good solution for this problem would be to make raw wraps for lunch, perhaps wrapped in lettuce leaves... They would be quicker to eat than salads.]
• Nose still blocked, still cough but not as bad, phlegm coming up my throat today, perhaps cleansing. Don't feel tired at all, work days are pretty painless and go fairly quick. Cycling feels pretty easy again. Belly doesn't feel as bloated, it used to feel like a balloon under my skin. No headaches whatsoever, mostly no digestion problems, apart from occasional loose stools. Hair is quite dry. I sleep well. Sometimes my lungs still feel like I can't fill them properly but more often than not they feel fine. I've definitely made a big improvement over the years since the day I went to see a doctor in the States and he told me there was nothing wrong... Obviously I disagreed.
• Ran out of wheatgrass powder couple of days ago.
• It would be exciting to do a live blood analysis, to see what is happening at the cellular level.
• Perhaps my craving for pasta is a sign that it is being eliminated from my system.
• Somewhat bad taste in my mouth today, more than the other days.

Jump to Conclusions

Day 14 of Raw Food Challenge - Thu May 12th

• Diarrhea in the morning, detox symptom. But not much smell and felt very clean afterwards. [Bad body odors are meant to disappear eventually on raw foods.]
• Feeling cold this morning.
• Weight has dropped, and I can tell from my figure - 56kg
• Cough not as bad but throat still definitely not clear
• Gonna have a 'liquid lunch' today

Day 15 on Raw Foods - Fri May 13th

• Challenging weekend ahead, no money to buy food and limited amount of foodstuffs at home...
• I'm losing weight now.
• My menses (periods) were reasonably easy, started yesterday, but felt pretty tired and strengthless yesterday. Today I have my strength back but still not 100%. Used wild yam cream for pain, it does help massively. The other thing I found out that helps was deep breathing. Helps for pain massively.
• I'm more flexible without having done any exercise (except from cycling in total 1hr every weekday). Or maybe I can stretch better because I've lost weight on my back...
• No detox symptoms, phlegm still loosening.
• Yesterday had bad breath, I guess that's a detox symptom.
• Liquid lunch works, doesn't taste good but works.
• Worried about getting enough calcium because my nails seem to have stopped growing as fast as normal. But they still feel strong. Apparently milk products can increase growth to abnormal levels because they are meant for a baby cow to grow into a huge animal.
• Watched a documentary today, distilled hemp oil cures cancer (the THC in it) - "Run from the Cure - The Rick Simpson Story"
• Cycling is very easy now, I feel quite strong.
• Work days feel easy.
• Mouth doesn't feel clear though, like I expected, at least not today and yesterday. Perhaps it has something to do with the period.
• Reading through my feelings after the first raw food experiment make me think I'm making massive progress just by realising how much cooked food can effect my feelings. Now I've been raw and clean of all toxins for longer than ever in my life. Stepping into the unknown. Let's hope that the next 15 days impress me. I am also probably receiving more nutrients now than ever before in my life, although back in Finland a lot of my food must have been more mineral-rich from growing in natural soil under natural sunlight and air. I would say that this change in 15 days is quite big, although at the same time quite vague... But I feel fresh, mentally balanced, not hungry, not tired, awake and satisfied, strong, flexible. My skin is soft like a baby's bottom, brilliant, from coconut oil.
• What I would like to see happen: My head clear up, I still have this dull feeling in my head, like I'm a bit sleepy. And my eyes are not as clear as I would like them to be. I talk in a bored and mechanical way, although generally happy but would love to have lots of energy and joie de vivre! Mouth clear up, tongue be clear and not taste funny. Waist get thin. Would like to only need 4 hours of sleep per night, or at least less than usual! My hair be nice without conditioner. Feel energy tingling in my body and be happy and excited all the time. Wake up excited about the new day. Look younger and younger. Become very lucky and learn new ways of living. Enjoy life more. Have clear radiant eyes and shapely body with a thin waist! Be able to help others enjoy the same - AND get rid of my cough and blocked nose... be able to breathe deep and proper all the time and smell! Properly! Increase time and finances through new eating discipline with no waste...

Jump to Conclusions

Day 17 of Raw Food Diet - Sun, 15th May

• Woke up quite late, at 10.30am.
• Have to read Victoria Boutenko's book about green smoothies. She reckons that you have to eat two bunches of greens per day to avoid illnesses and gain all kinds of benefits. Raw foodism without the greens doesn't seem like an optimum diet.
• Started probiotics yesterday. Since they are in my fridge I might as well eat them.
• My period has become shorter. Today is the fourth day and there is almost no blood. Yesterday there was very little blood. Before my period used to last for a week. Now it seems like 3-4 days! Hopefully the pain will go completely too.
• I'm feeling like I want to continue this way of eating for another 30 days after the first 60. For four main reasons: 1) I don't want to get the negative feelings of edgyness, bloatedness, tiredness, not having strength, long workdays, etc. 2) I want to see how long it takes to feel that my sinuses and throat are clear, there is no period pain, etc. 3) I am curious to see how good you can look and feel on this, in a way it would be a shame to stop the experiment after achieving the first 30 days. Benefits on 60 days might be so much greater. 4) I am saving a lot of money, which would be good to keep up, by not snacking, buying alcohol, lunches at work, dinners. Especially now that money is a bit tight with all the payments, and it is summer so it would be nice to be able to go to the seaside etc.
• David Wolfe reckons you have to eat high silicon and magnesium, low calcium diet. Calcification is the cause of many diseases and parasites and heavy metals, which can attach to the calcified organs. The solution is to decalcify and afterwards to clear parasites with garlic, cloves, black walnut hull, reishi, cordyceps, other medicinal mushrooms, blue mangosteen powder (drives out nanobacteria), catsclaw; enzymes, adaptogenic herbs (ginseng, goji berry, ashwaganda, nettles, rodiola, tulsee, shadawari?). Help everything; high vit C botanical (camu camu berry powder, etc.); omega 3 fatty acid long chain (hemp seed & flax seed is medium chain fatty acid), long chain epa, long chain dha; phytoplankton (highest level of dha and epa, need both) = good for nervous system.

Jump to Conclusions

Day 18 of Raw Food Challenge, Mon 16th May

• Had a little tiny headache yesterday evening, I guess I am still detoxing.
• 56kg, weight is falling slowly but nicely.
• Biggest craving these days is wine, not even beer.
• Cheese doesn't seem such a big deal anymore, but starches still keep me craving a little bit: potatoes, pasta, veggie soup...

[Later note: The cravings are mostly likely a sign that the body is not getting something it needs. In this case my body was probably not getting enough calories, and so it craved for high-calorie carbs - even wine is a carb as well... (alcohol is a form of sugar). The solution would have been to eat more, and more micronutrients. I was probably too low on protein foods as well and possibly too high on sugar.]

Day 19 on Raw Foods, Tue 17th May

• 56kg
• Today I was very hungry and badly wanted to eat something. Had to steal a few blueberries from the fridge at work, I don't know whose they were. The problem was that we have ran out of both, fruit and money. So I couldn't have any fruit with my morning smoothie, not for snacking, not in my salad and not in the evening, when sometimes I have a fruit & berry smoothie or fruit salad. So my fruit intake was very low, and I felt it. Started feeling tired and hungry in the afternoon, felt a bit weak, slight headache developing. At home I had some molasses sugar (not raw), nuts, and a smoothie with seeds and greens in it, as well as dates and syrup. Feel better now. So this teaches me how important it is to have sugar (in the form of fruit)! Affects energy levels a lot.
• [Later note: it was probably just important to have some food for energy. I wonder if I crashed afterwards as the sugar I ate would have spiked the blood sugars up, and a blood sugar crash usually follows afterwards.]
• Also, at lunch I was reading a little bit of Victoria Boutenko's 'Green for Life' book online. Very interesting, I have to buy this. Apparently eating greens in a broken down form (smoothie) gives lots of energy, health, less sleep requirement, etc. So I have to read this, and have to start incorporating green smoothies/ juices to my daily schedule.
• The other thing I've been reading about is calories and raw food. How important it is to get calories from nuts and seeds, avocado, etc., because otherwise one will have to eat impossible amounts of fruit and veg, or one will become emancipated and thin. Apparently fruitarians eat fruit because it is an easier way to get calories than the veg, but you will have to eat so much and actually nuts and fats are not bad for you, as long as you don't overeat them and become fat. Some people do say that a 'heavy' meal makes them feel heavy and not so good but I think this can be countered by lots of greens in the diet. I guess David Wolfe is right with his circle of three equal things: greens, fruit (carbohydrates), fats. Apparently every person is different and needs a different balance but eating equal amounts of each of these is good. [I later found out that David Wolfe himself eats a very high fat raw food diet.]
• Apparently your tongue is coated when detoxing and when you are clean the tongue loses the coating and becomes pink. Another one for my list of what I would like to achieve on this diet.

Jump to Conclusions

Day 21 Eating Raw Foods, Thu 19th May

• 55kg, belly is pretty good but still a little protruded, maybe it needs exercise.
• I feel a lot more flexible in my whole body, and movements are easier. Was stretching on the floor and the back felt like it was loosening up from the spine in a new way and this happened quite easily. Did 40 stomach muscles and 35 back muscle exercises, not having done any stretching or exercise since probably before Christmas - except from cycling to work and back every day 30+30mins.
• Had liquid smoothie lunch again today and 2 apples and 2 bananas for snacks at work. Morning and lunch smoothie also had bananas in them - total intake of the day: 6 bananas!
• Didn't feel like eating anything for lunch, not hungry. Just had a couple of cashew nuts, some olives, and two teaspoons of molasses sugar, as well as probiotics and lemon water.
• Having hot baths and lots and lots of water every day to lessen detox symptoms, to relax, and to enjoy myself.
• Did a long day at work today with no lunch break.
• Holosync test cd arrived.
• I want to continue this diet, because if it works (I do feel quite good and excited about it although progress is subtle) I want to be able to provide an example to others, especially my family and friends to benefit from it. Also, I want to be able to do more with my day, e.g. during studies... sleep less and have a nice life while doing intense projects.
• This diet saves so much time that would be normally spent on cooking (or money spent on ready food).
• Cough is definitely better, I don't cough after a lunch smoothie at all it seems (anymore). Nose is still blocked although it felt like one earway opened up this morning when I blew my nose. I may not ever go back to beer, it seems to be something that makes me cough badly the following morning - wine is better for you in every way anyway.
• One of the things I am most amazed about it how easy it is to stick to this diet. I can tolerate hunger so much easier, most of the time it doesn't bother me. Only time I really feel like I need to eat is when I start getting tired or losing concentration, or feeling weak. Then a banana helps, or an apple even, to give me a pick up.
• I was craving a cheese croissant today, a little bit, and a half-rare organic pepper-sauce beef steak [last time I had one of these was over 10 years ago since I am a vegetarian!]. Also, white pasta with butter and garlic sauce, bf's mash potato and salt fish. But none of these cravings were too bad, they went away quickly and only appeared while cycling home after 8pm and not having eaten much for ages. Hunger seems to cause cravings, otherwise they are non-existent.
• It is really amazing how satisfying the food on this diet it. You seem to need much less, tolerate long periods of absence from food (as long as there are fruits to snack on), and not even crave much else.
• I save a lot of money not buying snacks, beer, lunches, pastries, wine bottles, cheese... Also, ordering organic foods online helps, as it is cheaper than Abel and Cole and can order e.g. seeds in larger quantities.
• I'm battling in my mind whether to continue 100% raw or not for another 30 days. I think the danger is going too much over the top in the beginning and ending up over-stretching myself. Although I do enjoy eating like this and right now it feels like another 30 days would not be difficult at all, I think it is probably a good idea to take a few days off and 'reward' myself with cooked food. This is just to observe how it makes me feel and also to make sure that I don't become so raw that cooked food makes me sick. I don't want to NOT ever be able to eat cooked food again. It would be exciting to see what another 30 days on raw would do, but perhaps I would get most of the benefits anyway by eating, say, raw 6 days a week and cooked 1 day per week. It's a big dilemma, I really want to continue raw, but don't think if it is wise to do it 100%. And it will be half the summer gone before I'm back on cooked food. This wouldn't matter otherwise but it is nice to be able to go places and eat out and drink on terraces/ bars. In any case I will drink some organic wine for my birthday.

Jump to Conclusions

Day 22 - Last Day of 100% Raw This Time

Day 23 - Not Raw - Sat 21st May

• I had a small bottle of wine (330ml), was trying to find organic but because it was too expensive, bought normal white wine instead, and drank it in the park with Perrier water. It felt fine but made me tired and also caused me to want to eat cooked heavy food.
• I had cooked white pasta with vegetables that bf made, it was nice. I thought that I can't be too extreme on this diet. And since I already had the alcohol it seemed like it made sense.
• Surprising is that I didn't feel tired after eating the pasta. I'm feeling a bit tired the following day though (Sunday).
• Today was 65% raw

Day 24 - Not Raw - Sun 22nd May

• Started Holosync meditation today, awakening prologue, the dive, 30 mins.
• A little bit of coconut oil seems to work very well for my hair.
• Cough is a bit worse today, not too bad though, and weight is up by 1-2kg straight away. I'm curious which causes this more, though, alcohol or pasta.
• Make sure to get magnesium and silicon (silica) (to be able to make calcium - according to Wolfe you don't actually need calcium, just magnesium and silicon).
• Magnesium: spinach, sweet potato, okra, pumpkin seeds, almonds, pumpkin, dried figs, prunes, bananas, avocado.
• Silicon (silica): Cucumber, flax seeds, fruit and veg with shiny skin (apples, tomato skins, bell peppers, etc.), hemp leaves, alfafa, beets.
• Lessons learned: alcohol definitely makes me crave cooked food quite badly. And makes you tired. If you want to drink this, drink organic and at the end of the day, with some heavy raw food snacks available. Don't drink on empty belly.
• I crave toast and eggs today, and pasta, cheese. It must be because of the pasta I ate yesterday. I feel tired today, probably because of what I ate yesterday. Or it could be the holosync doing stuff to my brain - 'holosync detox'... No irritability though.
• Although 100% raw in spirit, there have been some non-raw things I've been eating, which would be possible to get raw but too expensive. I.e. agave syrup is probably not raw, molasses sugar, maple syrup, olives, some of the nuts, especially cashew, some sugar coated nuts at work, apple and mango juice at work, tap water, extra virgin olive oil (non-organic and not guaranteed to be raw), and shoyu sauce (doesn't say 'nama' on the label so possibly not raw).

22 Day Raw Food Diet Experiment Conclusions

6th June 2011

• First raw food experiment was 7 days, next one 22 days, the third trial I will do 100 days, but with cheat days in between.
• Reading Tonya Zavasta's Quantum Eating... will incorporate some of this into the new diet
• Read 'Green for Life' by Victoria Boutenko - a very good book, will definitely incorporate
• Been having green smoothies in the last 3-4 days - although my blender is very small (500ml) and can only fit a couple of big green leaves in one smoothie - but I seemed to notice a difference in energy levels from the second day onwards.
• This morning had a morning smoothie without nuts and seeds. Surprisingly, I felt less hungry for the morning than I would otherwise. I had not much sick feeling in the belly like sometimes after a 'heavy' smoothie in the morning (just some discomfort from too many radishes and sour things) [I found out later this nausea was caused by taking too much MSM (sulphur) in the smoothie, thus the radishes (sulphur-rich) had the same effect], and no hunger all morning. I even forgot to eat my banana at work! I had an apple though, but normally I need many. All the smoothie had was one apple, radishes, green peas (organic), some dark green lettuce leaves, and 1 tbsp maca powder and 1 tbsp msm (sulphur) powder. I am not sure but it might have had one banana as well. Previously, my smoothie had similar ingredients but also 2 tbsp hemp seeds, 2 tbsp other seeds (flax, pumpkin, sunflower), and 1 tbsp coconut oil. [Later note: It may have been the protein in the maca that helped keep hunger, and of course the coconut oil.]
• This morning I also had a 1.5 squeezed oranges for juice.
• 'Hangovers' go quicker than usual but I have also got used to drinking white wine with sparkling water. In fact I prefer that to just wine now (50%/50%).
• Weight is approx 9 stone, sometimes slightly under, sometimes slightly over.
57-58kg. I was reaching 55kg at the end of my last raw food diet, now I haven't gained much but feel like I have gained some.
• Apparently green smoothies add bulk and help to protect against weight loss on raw foods. Many people found help with this when they couldn't stay raw because they would lose too much weight. According to V. Boutenko.
• Key to next successful raw food journey; the third chapter in my new experience; maximum energy diet:
  1. Light breakfast (how you break the fast is important, remember?)
  2. Green smoothie (ideally two) every day,
  3. Cheat days - something between 6/100 - 14/100 cheat days (max. one per week). Try to stay part raw on cheat days also, if it doesn't feel like a burden.
  4. Record the time you ate the last meal, try to have it as early as poss, this needs experimenting with. Don't try to dry fast yet, it is too early. Sometimes might be worth trying to have the last meal at work, but this is difficult. Unless it is a fruit salad or bananas. That might work. Skipping an evening meal sometimes might be easy, but the best thing might be a fruity smoothie for dinner.
  5. Don't worry, in the beginning at least, if all the meals become liquid!
  6. Don't need to eat nuts and seeds everyday if having green smoothies (i guess, a bit worried about this but gonna give it a try)
  7. Undecenoic acid capsules for however long they last, i guess one month. This might speed up weight loss and in fact the diet i will have will not be far from the candida diet.... i cant really afford fruit juice, and nuts and seeds will be greatly reduced. I won't worry about oranges.
  8. Meditation with holosync (seems to help manifestation ;))
  9. Probiotics every day outside of meal times (half hour away)
  10. Sometimes exercise
  11. Fast days? Probably not. Should try the 12-16 hour water/ lemon juice fast every day instead.
  12. Colonics/ enemas at least once a week (supposed to help with less detox symptoms and so quicker release of energy as body is helped with cleansing)
  13. Remember that raw food is worth it if not for anything else at least for making your ordinary 'cheat day' meals feel and taste amazing.
  14. Clear parasites with garlic, cloves, black walnut hull, reishi, cordyceps, other medicinal mushrooms, blue mangosteen powder (drives out nanobacteria), catsclaw
• Currently, although haven't been raw, I have been having most of my breakfasts and lunches raw. Or at least 50% considering weekends and trip to Finland have been different, and sometimes i have bought pastries at work or in the evenings. Plus cake at work, crisps in the evening.... etc.
• I cycle 2x30mins every day to work still
• No coffee or tea or hot drinks still
• Drink tap water and filtered water most of the time, not so good
• I noticed that I crave less alcohol
• Detox symptoms: if you get cold, this is a detox symptom. Take enemas and or just bear with it. Keep warm. It is because body's energies are used on detoxing and less on warming the body. It is common to get the same cold feeling after eating because this time the body's energies are spent on digestion and less is available for warming.

Later Notes

Four years after this 22-day raw food challenge I realized that diets too low in carbohydrates sapped my energy and possibly at least partly caused the headaches I begun to suffer from later on. It is interesting that I found this diet quite easy and comfortable probably because I was eating fruit (for carbohydrates), whereas many of my later diets were very low-carbohydrate.

On the other hand I didn't eliminate the cough during this diet, and even eating fruit seemed to trigger it as well. If the cough is due to a stealth infection in my lungs, as I suspect it is, then acidity, inflammation and mucus-causing foods, as well as starches and sugars would have been feeding it. The cough could have been due to indigestion or aspergillus infection - either way, it got eliminated later. I also noticed that any time I drank alcohol the cough would come back strong the next day.

At the same time I didn't feel in perfect health during this diet, quite a few issues still remained and my energy levels could have been much better still. I was also very low on money at some points while on this diet, so I wasn't eating enough calories, carbs or protein at points.

This raw food diet felt easy as long as I was able to snack on fruits for energy and for curbing hunger. However, much after this diet I noticed that I couldn't eat too much fruit as I started feeling very weak and got fever-like feeling from the sugar. I have a 'cold and damp' body type according to my Chinese Doctor, which is a weaker body type. I am hoping, however, that it could be possible to overcome this weak constitution by overcoming the aspergillus infection in my lungs (not visible in x-rays but detected in live blood analysis by a nutritionist). Read here: aspergillus: for updates on how I began to gradually eliminate it. I was able to return to eating fruit later, including fruit juice, without problems.

The Chinese Doctor's diagnosis is helpful: that for my and most other people's bodies raw foods are too cold, in energy-terms, if not balanced out by heat from the sun and the weather, the bath, plenty of exercise, warm foods, qi gong, and proper chewing of food. It seems that many successful raw foodists live in the tropics and/or exercise a huge amount. Jameth Sheridan has mentioned that Ayurvedic 'vata' (cold and damp) body types may not do well with raw foods. But my theory is that vata body type may possibly be improved upon by overcoming infections and/or parasites (e.g. candida), in which case these people (including me) could possibly stay on raw foods for longer time and remain perfectly healthy.

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