25-day raw food challenge, day 19 continues...
By the way, I'm not convinced anymore that the olive oil I'm eating is good quality, because I read about this in Udo Erasmus' book. He says that the careful cold pressing process is only one of the factors when making truly raw and healthful oils. Even more important, he says, is that the oil is carefully protected from light and air, and not stored for too long before eating.
[Later note: I later emailed the company, Oliveology, again, and they made some slightly vague statements reassuring me that their oils are protected from light and good quality.]
Back to: How to know good olive oil - Part I
I'm trying to see if there is a craving at the root of this discomfort. And I do know that white bread and cheese would taste nice - or pizza! Maybe I feel like having a raw food pizza, actually. I just don't feel like eating salad or smoothie at all. However the main problem at the moment are not the cravings, but that my body and muscles feel weak.
9.10pm: Did yoga, Five Tibetan Rites and the Spine Twist. Especially the 'Spine Twist' seems to relieve my headache. I think it originates in my upper back.
I should do these exercises twice a day now to try to properly release whatever is wrong with my back.
I don't feel tired anymore apart from my eyes - they feel tired. My eyesight seems to be especially blurry today (this seems to happen when I am tired).
8.30pm: Had a raw pizza! I was hungry, even though I didn' feel it in the usual way. I ate almost the full 6" raw food pizza - note that a raw food pizza is a lot more filling than a normal pizza.
Raw pizza ingredients: Flax seed and sunflower seed base with salt, oregano, olive oil and water. This is an instant base that doesn't need dehydrating but not amazingly nice. Cherry tomato sauce with olive oil, salt, oregano. Toppings: cherry tomatoes, sweetcorn, black olives, ramiro red peppers. 'Cheeze' sauce: cashew nuts, lemon, water, cayenne pepper, salt, nutritional yeast.
I felt a bit irritable today too. I didn't really enjoy the pizza as much as I would have enjoyed a normal pizza. It is not as satisfying to the taste buds - you don't get the same feeling of pleasure when eating it.
Star anise and cinnamon tea, pureed in the Vitamix - tasted amazing!
Went to bed at 1am.
Friday, 23rd Jan 2015
Woke up at 10am. Don't feel well-rested.
I don't feel like eating this morning. Just had a pint of water with the juice of one lemon squeezed in.
11am: B12 2,000mcg.
My skin feels softer than normal (raw food effect) but I'm also getting a few small spots. I still have puffy under-eyes, though, and my eyes look dull - not bright and clear. Maybe reducing salt would take away the puffiness? But all the salt I have been having during this raw food challenge has been natural salt (Himalayan) which is supposed not cause any of the problems that chemical table salts do...
Made green juice with okra which was a mistake, because the juice came out very gooey! NOT recommended! But I drank it anyway, of course, though it was difficult.
1.20 - 3.20pm: Went out for a walk.
Eating a tiny little piece of raw pizza, left-over from yesterday, and one ripe plantain mashed with salt and pepper. Yummy!
[Later note: Maybe the best approach to a successful raw food challenge would be to eat a lot between 2pm and 6pm; very little in the evening (protein rich if anything); and nutritious, low-fat, very easy-to-digest, light foods in the morning, e.g. green juice, fermented foods or tasty smoothies eaten with a spoon.
The idea being that your energies are saved during the day but you are properly nourished for the next day. And any evening snacks don't interfere with your sleep or your blood sugar.]
4.10pm: Ate a cupful of fresh blueberries, drinking chaga mushroom tea. Feeling a little tired again.
7.30pm: Had good energy all day today.
Salad: lettuce, cherry tomato, sweetcorn, hemp seeds, nutritional yeast, cayenne pepper, black pepper, salt, garlic olive oil, pine nut and raisin pickle.
This raw food challenge has so far not been able to completely eliminate my chronic cough - although it is generally much more of a problem when I drink alcohol. (Alcohol doesn't cause me to cough straight away but the next day I cough a lot more after eating etc.) I suspect anything that weakens the body also weakens the digestive power. And it seems from before that this cough is digestion-related.
Went to bed at 11pm.
Saturday, 24th Jan 2015
9.30am: Woke up. Feel tired again despite sleeping a lot.
Had some pain in my belly and a wave of nausea - linked to elimination. It seems that I am detoxifying through my bowels as I don't normally have such problems.
So today I felt like maybe spending a day making lots of raw foods from recipes but I don't want to spend a lot of money so will probably have to skip it.
11.30am: Smoothie (breakfast): Berries, spinach, lettuce, fo-ti, turmeric, chia seeds, hemp leaf powder, milk thistle seeds, raspberry leaves, ginseng, holy basil (tulsi), water.
Supplements: paramin, limcomin, iron, B12 (2,000mcg).
Feel a bit tired again.
5.10pm: Had Ani Phyo's 'love the chicks' pate, salsa and chilli sauce with avocado. Bragg's amino acids on top. Started taking liquid aminos because I'm worried about whether I get enough of all the different amino acids during this raw food challenge.
The girl in the health food shop told me that taking both wheatgrass powder and spirulina will give you all the essential amino acids you will need. The non-essential amino acids your body can manufacture itself. So I bought some wheatgrass powder. [Note: spirulina (algae) is a 'complete' protein.]
A little bit of chaga mushroom tea.
Note: Earlier I ate half of a 'Naked' raw food bar but had to throw it away because it tasted so bad (it was almost out of date and drier than usual too).
It is my last day of menses today and I can confirm that this raw food challenge has been successful in eliminating a lot of the pain and other symptoms. I will update the hormone diet report to reflect this latest finding.
Today I've been snacking on prunes rolled in licorice again and also on a few apple pieces dipped in organic chilli peanut butter (not raw).
The cravings for junk food I get from even two glasses of wine are very strong and I always succumb to them. And it also seems impossible for me to have just one drink; the first one is always easier to resist than the second one. And even if I didn't drink, but ate a piece of bread with butter, for example, it would cause me to crave more and more of the same bread. And the effect lasts at least 2-3 days even if I force myself to not eat any bread. And at the same time it wrecks my blood sugar.
So whenever I crave these foods or drinks these days I remind myself that the brief enjoyment is not worth it if I end up going on a binge. Even with bread the first slice is always the easiest to resist! And a junk-food binge would cause me to: 1) spend more money eating out in restaurants 2) put weight back on and look worse 3) bring back my menstrual cramps and related problems 4) make me feel less clever and less confident 5) cause me to become slightly more moody and argumentative 6) cause me to become emotionally less well and less happy 7) make me look older and more bloated 8) bring back blushing and anxiety 9) bring back blood-sugar problems and related fatigue 10) fall off this raw food challenge. So it is really not worth it to have a piece of bread or a glass of wine!
6.50pm: 1 tbsp wheatgrass powder in water.
Chaga mushroom and sage tea.
I didn't cough after eating a salsa scramble (almond pate, salsa and avocado as before).
(A nice salad dressing to be made later: olive oil, wasabi powder, soya sauce, lemon juice.)
7.30pm: The sage tea seems to have perked me up a little bit. It doesn't normally have this effect if I'm off raw foods and/or too tired, though.
8pm: I'm still having to blow my nose so the mucus is not really clearing on this diet. Is it because of the nuts? Do they cause mucus in my body? Or is it just detox happening very gradually?
Feel dehydrated again. Drinking another pint of filtered water. (I now have a water filter again.)
9.20pm: Feel good again, only a tiny bit tired.
11.30pm: Had three raw apple pancakes with cashew cream and raspberry jam (all raw and home-made). Recipe from Ani Phyo's book. Note that the raspberry jam had some dates in it and the cashew cream a little bit of maple syrup.
00:15am: Going to bed. Blocked nose.
Couldn't sleep straight away, maybe because of the 'sugar' in the pancakes.
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