Raw Food Challenge

25-day raw food challenge continues...

Day 3 - Raw Food Challenge

6th January 2015, Wednesday

Woke up late again: 11am.

Breakfast: Green juice made with kale, lemons, apple, cucumber, celery.
Took a hot bath.

On day 6 I juiced some brussels sprout heads, which I found from the small local farmer's market.

4pm: Smoothie: Fresh raspberries, green lettuce, pumpkin seeds, black sesame seeds, chia seeds, banana, two dates, water, turmeric.

5pm: Avocado, pint of water.

Today I feel good and haven't felt sleepy or tired (maybe because of the long sleep I had). Can't say that I have any cravings but I also don't have much appetite. I don't want to force myself to eat more than my body signals me to as I want to be more in tune with my body's messages than I have done during my last raw food trials.

I woke up with thick phlegm in my throat and I'm quite sure it's because of detox (mucus starting to move) and not because I've eaten anything phlegm-causing.

I'm coughing a little through the day but no headache or jaw tenseness now - generally feel good though not too energetic. My head is starting to feel clearer. No hunger feelings.

Ate an apple, a banana and two dates as evening snacks.

Went to bed at 11pm but didn't fall asleep until 1am.

Something gave me slight heart palpitations - I suspect the dates. I found it difficult to sleep. 3ml of valerian root together with 2-3 drops of angelica essential oil on my forehead and temples helped and I fell asleep.

Day 4 - Raw Food Challenge

7th January 2015, Wednesday

Weight this morning: 55.5kg

When I woke up this morning, about 9.30am, I didn't feel very well rested and I felt some acid coming up my throat. Not sure why.

I have decided to not eat the dates anymore because I suspect that they are not raw. They are semi-dried, and bought from Tesco's, so I suspect that they have been heat-dried. So the sugar in them is not raw sugar, and it may well have given me heart palpitations last night - which is a typical sugar intolerance (carbohydrate sensitivity) symptom for me.

12.30am: Had my first meal: an apple and 1.5 bananas cubed.

Generally I have been feeling good this day, but quite phlegmy, especially the throat, and a stuffy nose as well.

1.50pm:
Ate an avocado (tasted metallic).
Supplements: Took B12 (2000mcg), iron, C-vitamin (ascorbic acid, 4g) in a pint of filtered tap water.

2.10pm:
Smoothie: 1tbsp spirulina powder, one lemon, water.

Was starting to feel hungry so had this smoothie. Now I'm developing a slight headache, maybe because it's quite cold indoors again. The cold seems to affect my neck. When the neck is already stiff the cold makes it worse and then the headache appears. Hot compresses, massage and/or using bongers on the upper back help, as well as specific kinds of careful stretches. (But note that this depends on the person: Some people with a lot of neck tension and shoulder tension get worse from trying to stretch. The nerves might be irritated, for example.)

I'm very tempted again to drink a hot tea but I want to try and stay away from it for a little while, and then bring it back in and see how I feel. On one of my earlier raw food challenges my mouth ended up feeling really fresh when I wasn't eating hot foods or drinking hot drinks.

4pm: I am sitting by the heater and my face is going very red again. Feeling cold and the red face seem somehow to be linked in my case.

I feel quite phlegmatic and out of energy. Maybe I should be going for a run or something to help my body detox and move things around. The Chinese Doctor also said that exercise and movement is very important energy-wise to bring 'heat' into the body, whereas raw foods are 'cold'. Note that this is not exactly the same meaning as the word 'cold' has in Western cultures. It is Chinese traditional terminology, referring to types of energies.

4.20pm: Getting maybe a very slight low blood sugar feeling. Not sure.

5pm: I must say, I am already doubting this diet. But I will stick to 25 days no matter what.

I made a juice because I thought that at least it will be very easy to digest. Approx: 500ml of lettuce, celery, apple and clementine juice. (Note: I have been peeling all the apples during this raw food challenge because they look shiny and probably have wax on them - I usually don't peel apples.)

If the raw food diet doesn't prove to work for me this time, it may be because 1) it's cold 2) I don't have access to fresh good-quality fruit (the fruit shipped here from Southern countries may be unripe) and 3) I haven't been exercising enough to keep 'heat' energy in my body and to keep lymph moving.

7pm: Had an avocado and some water. The avocado had a horrible taste to it - very metallic! It was Tesco's "ripe and ready to eat" avocado. I haven't noticed this before when eating those.

10pm:
Took a walk outside (earlier) and afterwards I don't feel so cold anymore.
Just did some gentle exercises: Five Tibetan Rites, a few yoga movements and the 'Spine Twist'.

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