HERE WE GO AGAINNNNNNNN

Ok, shame on me. I has been more than a year that I stopped writing on this blog and I really don’t have any good news to post. All the opposite… stress, this and that, busy life, work, family… you name it (I have a ton of excuses). The truth is that I am still overweight and have not changed my eating habits and here I am again trying to make a deal with myself and commit to something … GOING RAW one more time…. let’s start from the begining… Day 0 – I am 172 lb, cravings, food addiction, headaches, left parotid gland issues, acne (no respiratory issues lately), allergies (although I started allergy shots back in may), cannot concentrate, moody. Let’s give it a shot one more time.

I felt disappointment after stepping on the scale today…. 163.9 lb, my waist says something different though, I feel much lighter than a week ago. Well, ready to start a new week!

2 week recap

I am at week 2 of my raw diet and again I cannot wait to step on the scale tomorrow. The fat is just melting away and I have not done any exercise this week either. I have not had any cravings for my old food, all the opposite, everyday I crave more and more fresh raw food. I’ve been reading a few recipe books for raw food and some of those recipes sound delicious. I will try some zucchini pasta, raw mushroom soup and some raw dessert this week.
My acne is back, so I guess the change was just temporary. I’ve read that it is very common to get pimples and flu like symptoms when you start detoxing your body. But overall the appearance of my skin is way better than 2 weeks ago. I finally got rid of that horrible virus that gave me a sore throat for 4 weeks, thank goodness! and I will be seeing a ENT specialist to check on my parotid gland.
Today I learned that if you are going out you better be prepared with your own food or be prepared for failure. I went to the beach and I did not have time to pack some snacks/lunch. End result… I ate what I was not supposed to: Mcskillet burrito at McDonalds, Smoothie at Ben N Jerry’s and Chicken sandwich at Dairy Queen! I learned something about it … that old food does not taste great anymore. I am really craving my raw all natural food. I’ll update you on my weight tomorrow… until then

Changes and a dairy problem.

It has been officially a week since I changed my eating habits. I step on the scale today and it showed 164.5 lb (made me feel good!) No exercise included since I did not step on the gym until today.  At this rate in 4 weeks I will be around the 153 lb. I need to start exercising, that will help a lot with the weight loss.  Another major change has been my taste buds. A week ago I could have never ate a raw piece of red bell pepper, zucchini or celery. What a difference in flavor since I stopped eating all my junk food. I read about this a lot, but never thought a week into this program will make a difference.

What about dairy? well, I’ve read over and over that cow’s milk is bad for you. The protein molecule in cow’s milk is too difficult of the human body to break down. Goat’s milk and products and supposed to be a better option since they are easily digested. Raw-foodist recommend goat’s dairy products or even better nut milk, which does not taste bad at all.  Well I have been milk free for a week and today I went to Barnes and noble and was in a mood for something warm and sweet so I bought at cappuccino at Starbucks. OMG, two things went wrong, I added some brown sugar (3 packets) and it was horribly sweet. I normally put about 10 of those things! Between the milk and the sugar I felt horrible, nausea, upset stomach, bloated, it was not fun. Milk………. good bye!  There is only one thing that I am worried about, and that is my calcium, since the only thing I will be having is cheese I need to supplement my calcium some other way and that is where greens come into play.  Menu for this week :  Upon rising – fruit; Breakfast – sprouted grain toast with guacamole and baby carrots; Lunch – veggie omelet and salad or veggie soup, crackers and salad; Snack: fruit or carrots with hummus; Dinner – veggie pizza and salad, chicken salad or salmon and salad; Dessert – dark chocolate.

I made a booboo!. I have wonderful salad dressing recipe that has peanut butter as a base and I made it this week for my salads. Well I just found out that peanuts are not in the list of approved nuts……. what? They are supposed to be bad for you, just like soy beans. Well I will have to live with it for the week, my dressing is done. Next time I will use almond butter   Until next week, see ya….

Can’t wait to step on the scale tomorrow…

After almost a week of eating 80% raw, I am feeling very well. There are 4 things that have changed so far, first one … my bowel movements, what a difference…! I used to be constipated a lot, since day 3 everything is flowing out like it should. I went from one BM to 3 BM a day. Natalia’s book talks about it a lot, the whole detox diet is based on the theory that waste = weight and if you are not regular , then it means you are retaining toxic waste. That is why is very important to eat quick exit foods during the morning and afternoon and leave the heaviest meal for dinner. Second thing that changed was my skin, most of my acne is gone, I hope is not a temporary thing.Third thing is my weight, I cannot wait to step on the scale tomorrow at the gym, I feel lighter, less “DENSE” and last but not least, my taste buds have changed, I had a celery juice this morning and it actually tasted very nice.

Overall I am very pleased and looking forward to next week. One thing is bothering me  … my left parotid gland is panicking me. I actually started a log so I can tell my doctor about it again. I told him about 2 years ago and he seemed to think that it was nothing to worry about or perhaps a blocked duct, but since I don’t have any pain he did not do anything about it. Lately it feels like a hard knot and I’ve been reading too much online, I hope is not a tumor.

Things that I love to eat now: hummus, baby carrots, carrot/celery/orange juice, sprouted grain bread, avocados, almond milk, fruit…….. things that i did not like: sprouted grain pasta (definitely not my favorite). And by the way, if you try to cook spouted grain pasta, just remember it takes less time to cook than regular pasta. I boiled mine about 8 minutes and it was horrible – OVERCOOKED).  Other good things as a result of this week: my 2 year old daughter is eating sprouted grain bread and guacamole! I hope I can get her into juicing soon.

Learning how to say NO

How many times you have started a diet and somebody invites you some “junk” food… I hate that. Well so many times, I’ve said, whatever… and went ahead and ate and ate and ate some more and felt horrible about it.

Well yesterday that happened at work, but this time I said NO.  Why is so hard to say no, and why is so hard specially for me to stop feeling selfconscious about it. Who cares what people think! I’ve started a diet so many times within the last year that it’s not funny. I don’t want this to be a diet, I want it to be a new lifestyle for me, no looking back. Anyway, I had a very nice day yesterday, enjoyed each and every meal. Can’t complaint about flavors and quantity. The only thing I missed was something sweet after lunch, so I guess I will keep some fruit for snack instead of veggies. Dark chocolate is mouth watering after dinner.Feeling good, plus some other good thing are happening in my life, God is soooooooooo GOOD My menu from yesterday: Rising – banana, Breakfast – toast with avocado spread and carrots, Lunch- salad with golden elixir and avocado/veggie sandwich, Snack- carrots with hummus, Dinner- salad with golden elixir and veggie lasagna (was delicious), Dessert – chocolate. I will be eating the same today except for the snack, i will do fruit instead. Ah! one more thing, I tried silk almond milk and guess what……? to die for, absolutely wonderful flavor.  I can enjoy a warm cup of chocolate milk and won’t miss dairy at all. Went to other natural food store and found a better variety of breads and other things, the name is Good Food Store.

See ya!

Amazed!

This is my first day and I am amazed about a few things that I tried for the first time.

First, the wonderful sprouted grain bread, yumm!  I’ve never tried such a good whole grain bread. Texture was awesome, you can even taste a little sweetness on it. I bought Ezequiel brand bread, I found it at the frozen section. The other thing that amazed me was Natalia Rose’s golden elixir. It is a salad dressing made with lemon, olive oil, garlic, ginger, honey and soy sauce, yumm!  I had to change my menu today a little bit since my husband grilled some salmon.

My day was as follows:

Upon rising: banana

Breakfast : 2 sprouted gran toast with guacamole and baby  carrots. Herbal tea with honey.

Lunch: Salad with gold elixir, brocolli and rice

Snack: 2 bananas and a few nuts ( I am not sure if it is good to combine the two of them, oh well!)

Dinner: salad with gold elixir, salmon & shrimp with broccoli, glass of white Merlot

Dessert: 2 squares of 60% cocoa chocolate.

Cannot wait to eat my veggie lassagna tomorrow, it smells yumm!

Today’s snapshot…. I am 167.9 lb ( 38 lb overweight), barely fitting a size 10, lots of abdominal fat, allergies, acne, mood swings, bread and sweets craving, recurrent upper respiratory infections (right now I have a horrible sore throat that started 2 weeks ago, dr. prescribed zitromax last week and it seemed to help a little but the sore throat came back), on and off swelling of my left parotid gland, chronic fatigue. I really want to see what this raw lifestyle can do for me. Although at this first stage I won’t be eating 100% raw, the objective is to stop bringing garbage in!

I went to the gym and did my PT routine and stayed a few minutes in the steam room, felt so good. My PT allowed me to start running again ( I am rehabbing my rt knee from a old injury – medial meniscus tear and patella femoral syndrome), so I will try to start running a few minutes every other day during this week. I was hopping to run the half marathon this year in November but due to my injury I will be happy if at least I can run the 8K again this year. I don’t think that long distance running is in my future

Feeling good and with HOPE!

Shopping day

Tomorrow is day 1 of my raw diet , so i went shopping today. I did not buy anything out of the ordinary other than the sprouted grain bread, the millet tortillas and the soba noddles.

I have never tried any of the above. I went to a whole food store called “Fresh market”, they sell organic and a lot of uncommon foods like the ones I am about to try. My menu for the week has been taken from Natalia Rose’s detox diet book . I will start with level 5 according to her book.

Upon rising: fruit

Breakfast: 2 sprouted grain toast with avocado and carrots (orignally it was celery but guess what..? i cannot stand the flavor of raw celery so I decided to switch to carrots. Hopefully one day I will learn how to enjoy a piece of raw celery)

Lunch: I chose three different options.

1- salad with avocado and viggie sandwich

2- salad, carrot & sweet potato bisque and slice of sprouted bread

3 – salad, veggie soup & crackers

Snack: three options to choose,

1- baby carrots

2- carrot juice & 2 bananas or green lemonade

3 – carrot or mixed veggie juice and baby carrots

Dinner: to choose from,

1 – veggie lasagna and guacamole salad

2-  green salad, pasta with broccoli, slice of sprouted grain bread (the book called for kamut pasta but i could not find it, so I bough soba noodles.

3- Guacamole salad, detox quesadilla and steamed veggies

Dessert: dark chocolate.

As I mentioned, never had sprouted grain bread. I hope is good, because one thing that I am really hooked on is bread. I will be give up milk, but I don’t think I am ready to get rid of cheese.Natalia recommends goat cheese as a transition food, so I will try to find some next weekend. I only saw the traditional goat cheese spread in the store, but what I need to find is some type of cheddar cheese made from goat milk.

Any way I am excited about next week.  The rules are simple: 1 – stop bringing the trash in ( no sugars, no white flours, no milk, no processed foods, no read meat or pork, no hydrogenated oils…. you know all the bad stuff).

I don’t think I will have any major issues, I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables but I as I mentioned, I am hooked to bread and sweets.

Wish me luck!

Hello world!

Never though about having my own blog online before, but I think I have a good reason to start one this time. There are a few things I want to change in my life and I want to share my journey with others that could be in the same situation. After 34 years of living an ordinary lifestyle and having some health issues that I will talk about later, I decided to make a real change: I want to improve my overall health. I fully acknowledge that drastic changes don’t work for me. Change has to be done step by step… There are so many things that I need to change and I cannot do them all at once.

I named this blog “GOINGRAW” because after reading about the benefits of a raw diet I am willing to try it. Changing my diet is going to be the  first step towards the new me and it will be the center of my transformation.