One girl’s tippie toe steps into the world of raw food. Maybe.

I was a little surprised to see that I was still at 191 after the popcorn and Philly cheesesteak yesterday.

Got up this morning and took a little walk around the neighborhood, more because I wanted some alone time than anything else. I’m listening to a Playaway book called From Dead to Worse and it’s due back at the library soon so I need to get through it!

My in-laws headed out to Estes this morning, I hope they have a good time. We got them a few warm items to take with them just in case they want to get out of the car. They’re in from North Carolina and although it’s been really nice here and probably not a whole lot colder than home during the day, Estes is another climate altogether.

I went out at 10:00 AM to Bed, Bath and Beyond to get the Brevelle juicer, which was a better deal with the 20% coupon I had and came to $120 before taxes.

Came home and promptly made the first fresh carrot juice I’ve ever had in my 40 years on this planet. Not something I’m likely to drink often, I have to say, but at least I gave it a shot.

9:00 - Man, I’m tired. I’m not sure if my energy level is responding to this diet. I really don’t think so, since let’s be honest - I haven’t really gone raw yet. Still, I’m finding that come 9:00 or so, I am beyond ready for bed, but I’m waking up between 2:00 and 3:00 AM just ready to get up and go do something.

The toddler LOVES the almond butter balls, which is excellent. I’d rather feed him those than cookies with flour in ‘em. At least these have almonds and sunflower seeds, which are chock full of goodness.

Foods Eaten:

• One banana
• One grapefruit
• A couple of pieces of pineapple
• One slice of sprouted cinnamon raisin bread with almond butter
• Not raw onion soup and swiss cheese (leftovers we’re still working through)
• 16 oz carrot juice
• Two almond butter balls
• One almond butter ball sized glop of a raw carrot cake I’m making - that’s why I had the juice, I needed the pulp for the cake
• One “slice” of finished raw carrot cake - it’s really not bad! I did put some real cream cheese in the frosting (cashews, lemon juicer and honey) and that helped quite a bit
• 4 ounces chicken
• 2 ounces mozzarella
• 1.5 cups pasta with marinara (no meat)
• One large piece garlic toast
• 1 cup grapes

Activities:

• Two mile walk, about 40 minutes. Steep uphills.

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Ah, that’s better.

It’s a beautiful sunny day in Colorado. My husband is feeling better, my in-laws are in town, my oldest son is at his father’s hopefully enjoying his 13th birthday, and my middle son is in Cancun. Lucky dog.

Hubby wanted to find something for everyone to do today but I suggested that we just kind of chill out. His parents are going to go up to Estes tomorrow for a little mini-vacation overnight stay and we could save actual family stuff for next weekend when the older boys are in town, so there was no pressure to get out and do stuff. He just had surgery, for goodness sakes.

We did go run quite a few errands, though, and also went to see a movie. We haven’t gone to a “grown up” movie in a theater in quite a long time, so it was a nice little date. We saw Role Models, a movie full of “F” bombs and with a few shots of boobies, but overall much better than Superbad - funnier and nicer.

We also went looking for juicers, as I wanted one with a larger chute. All we could find was a Brevelle model and a bunch of Jack LaLane ones, and I decided to do some internet research before committing. I’m glad I did, as the LaLane ones do not get high marks for durability but the Brevelle ones do. I really wanted a “homogenizing” juicer but there doesn’t appear to be a machine that handles both juicing (fruits AND vegetables) and homogenizing really well besides the Champion brand, which is too low profile (I’d have to juice into a bowl, I think?) or some really pricey Green something-or-other brand ones that I wasn’t comfortable purchasing now. Maybe down the road when I’m really 100% raw.

Tried a new recipe, almond butter balls. It’s basically ground up raw sunflower seeds, almond butter, and raw honey, plus some raw cocoa that I decided to throw in at the last minute. Mash it all together, form balls and refrigerate. Surprisingly yummy little snack!! I think it’d be good to experiment with some shredded coconut and/or raisins as well.

Oh - another recipe too. Zucchini “hummus” dip with zucchini, garlic, tahini, lemon juice and olive oil. VERY good.

Foods eaten:

• One banana
• One apple
• Two almond butter balls
• One veggie sandwich with rice cheese on sprouted bread - hummus dip, lettuce, tomato, onion, cucumber, pickle, not raw mustard
• Movie popcorn with butter crap on top - yeah, I’m not ready to skip that yet.
• Philly cheesesteak sandwich with peppers.
• A few bites of baklava

So - mostly raw except for the popcorn and cheesesteak.

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Damn, look what two pieces of pizza and a cafeteria breakfast casserole can do to you?!

I’m not surprised, nor am I particularly distressed.

8:00 AM - Back at work today - yay! It’s almost like a vacation after the last two days.

1:00 PM - I had a wonderful conversation with a friend I haven’t spoken to on the phone in at least 15 years, called Grandma to let her know that Hubby is doing OK (she worries constantly), and have puttered around the office. Hubby called a while ago and sounded great, he was out running around with his mom, hadn’t taken any painkillers since this morning.

8:00 PM - Winding down the evening. Grandma cooked tonight and I ate it but went heavier on the veggies and just had a little piece of meat.

Foods eaten:

• Two bananas
• Small apple
• Coffee with Splenda and non-dairy creamer (still tired - hubby didn’t sleep well last night).
• Salad - four cups of romaine, carrots, cucumbers, green onions, and a fabulous dressing made of avocado, olive oil, honey, vinegar and cucumber. Probably the best experiment from the raw food cookbooks so far.
• Homemade sprouted buckwheat cereal - sprouted buckwheat that has been dehydrated - with raisins and chocolate almond milk (not raw - storebought almond milk) - not bad, but kind of “dirt”-y tasting when you really crunched into it. Good experiment but probably won’t be something I eat as a cereal, maybe more as a crunchy topping for fruit or yogurt.
• Halloween sized Kit-Kat - sue me, it’s the first Halloween candy I’ve had in five days.
• 2 ounces chicken, pan fried
• Small baked red potato with butter, cheese, onions and sour cream
• Corn
• 1 cup organic, incredibly crazy sweet grapes

Activities

• 23 minutes on treadmill at 3 mph

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Not surprising that I’m still at 188.8, since I didn’t really eat much yesterday.

Toddler woke up at 4:30 this morning, I’m not sure why, so even though I did come home and sleep in my own bed (thank God), it was still an abbreviated rest. I got up with him and snuggled for a while, then went upstairs and left him with grandparents. Took a shower, read a little bit of Raw Food Life Force Energy: Enter a Totally New Stratosphere of Weight Loss, Beauty, and Health and happily hit on a part of the book where she talks about being tired and how it’s about not respecting cycles and our bodies, etc. So, I decided not to be tired anymore and felt better.

8:00 AM - At the hospital, hubby has just ordered some breakfast but is dozing at the moment, thank goodness. He didn’t get hardly any sleep last night (hospitals being such NON-restful places) but maybe with me here he’ll be able to rest a bit. The doctor said he could go home today, which will be excellent as well.

8:30 PM - Although it may appear that I’m not serious about this, I really am. It’s just that I’m totally running on fumes at this point after a couple of days at a hospital. We’re home, husband is fine, and that is what’s important. He wanted pizza for dinner, so that’s what we had. I’m going to bed soon and am hoping to wake up tomorrow and get on track. So relieved that my husband is OK.

Foods eaten:

• 2 bananas
• 1 small apple
• Some breakfast casserole thing from the hospital cafeteria - mostly corn chips, cheese and green chile, I think. It was better than the sausage, bacon, eggs and biscuits and gravy options, I thought.
• Small salad (lettuce, tomato, onions, cucumbers, cheese) w/teeny bit of ranch.
• Dry toast - two pieces.
• Pizza - two slices. Big, New York sized slices.
• Large orange

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Kind of a bogus weight number, given that I didn’t end up with anything in my stomach yesterday after hovering alternate ends of my GI tract over the toilet, but oh well. I’ll take it.

Today we woke to a new President-elect. My circle of friends is giddy, and it’s wonderful to see. It’s also nice to see those who were not supporters find the grace to not only acknowledge but applaud the history made last night with the election of the first African-American President of the United States. While I believed that I would see that within my lifetime, I don’t know that my parents thought they would in theirs. I don’t envy him the mess he’s inherited but am thrilled to see that the world perhaps can still believe in the United States, especially after the last election.

But anyway, back to me. I woke up this morning feeling just fine and dandy, as did my husband. That was excellent news since we had to be at the hospital at 8:00 AM for his surgery. The downside was that he couldn’t eat or drink anything after midnight so since he was sick yesterday, he effectively hasn’t eaten in two days.

On the way to the hospital, we did stop and get me some breakfast. We had food at home but frankly, it was chaotic there. I got a bagel with egg and cheese but ended up taking a lot of the egg and cheese off because it was just not tasty. The cheese was that neon melty processed crap and the egg was just bland.

2:15: Now that he’s finally gone into surgery (I’m so glad we got here at 8:00 .. NOT) I am down in the cafeteria. They had a salad bar, thank goodness. They only had the standard salad bar dressings, but I don’t feel bad about that.

4:15 - OK, the salad was roiling in my belly. I got some french fries. Yeah, I suck.

Foods eaten:

• One not raw salt bagel
• One-ish scrambled egg
• One-ish slice of cheese type product
• Salad with lettuce, tomato, broccoli, carrots, cucumber, cheese, croutons, French dressing
• French fries
• 1/4 of a nasty turkey sandwich
• 2 small Lorna Doone shortbread cookies

7:30 - I finally got my husband up into a room after surgery and he’s hungry, but everything kitchen-y is shut down. One of the nurses found him a turkey sandwich box with shortbread cookies, peaches in heavy syrup and Sun Chips. I had a couple of bites of the turkey sandwich and two of the cookies. He had the peaches and a few of the Sun Chips. We threw away the rest. The sandwich was vile.

So - not much of a raw day. I went home at 9:00 after thinking that I could maybe spend the night. The rooms at this hospital are small and uncomfortable and there was only a little recliner and a thin blanket. Hubby begged me to go home and get some sleep, so I did.

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Election Day, and I’m a little nervous. My vote was cast a week ago so I don’t have to go to the polls today, just sit back and watch. Depending on how it goes, my biggest challenge today will be not having a drink.

My in-laws are in town. They came in last night at about 11:30 PM. I was really tired from being up with my son the night before so I went to bed around 8:30. Still didn’t have a great night’s sleep because my husband was up and down all night - hopefully he’s not getting what my son had because he has somewhat major surgery scheduled for tomorrow and I’m not sure they’ll do it if he’s running a fever. I ended up getting out of bed at about 5:00 and going downstairs to cut up some carrots and wash some grapes.

I looked at my list of foods yesterday and it really looks like I ate a lot. Our grocery bills are definitely going to go up for a while as we experiment. One recipe I tried last night went immediately into the trash - it was a “taco mush” thing that was supposed to maybe mimic the idea of taco meat. It really wouldn’t have been bad except that I think it called for way too much olive oil. I’m not a fan of olive oil’s taste anyway but this was just gross. A cup of raw almonds and a cup of raw walnuts … straight into the trash. I’ll try again another time, maybe with a milder oil.

I think our expenses will even out though. Much of the reading I’ve done suggests that people who make this shift tend to do exactly what we’re doing - dive in and try to mimic the stuff they’ve been used to eating. Eventually when their buds change and they’re in the habit, they just start eating mostly unprepared stuff, and a lot less of it. We shall see.

12:15 - Oh dear heavens, I am stuffed. I can’t possibly eat another bite, and I’m only up to the carrot in the list. I brought a big thing of salad (romaine today, not spinach - I really don’t like uncooked spinach and have no idea how long it will take to get over that aversion) and still have some of that chocolate pudding but can’t even entertain the thought of eating either at the moment.

1:30 - I am not stuffed anymore, but I now know why I was … nothing was digesting at all. I fear I have fallen to whatever’s going around our family. I can cross off most of what I ate today now …

Foods eaten:

• 2 cups grapes
• 3 bananas
• 1 cup not raw wasabi peas
• 1/2 cup not raw homemade hummus
• 1/2 orange bell pepper
• 4 cucumber slices
• 3 radishes
• 1/2 carrot

7:30 - Going to bed. Anyone who knows me knows that tonight of all nights I wanted to stay up, but I couldn’t do it. I asked a friend to text me when/if Obama hit 270 electoral votes.

9:09 - (but written November 5th) Received the text message. Smiled and went back to sleep.

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Alrighty, here we go. I need to take some pictures tonight to post on the Day Zero page, although I am very much NOT looking forward to seeing my flabby, cheesy, stretchmarky self published on the internet. Still, it must be done.

I’m not all raw, obviously. I do have some stuff in the fridge that I want to finish up - call it my cheapskate side. We did pack up two large boxes of stuff to take to the food bank. They’ve seen a huge increase in need this year, which is tragic. I am grateful that I have the means to even try this.

Anyway, this is probably not really the best day to start this little project, but I’m sure I could find an excuse regardless of when I actually began. The excuses for today are …

1. My in-laws are flying into town tonight. My Italian, love to eat and cook in-laws.
2. My husband is having somewhat major surgery Wednesday, which is stressful. We’ll find out Wednesday night if he still has the use of his right arm.
3. The holidays are coming up. Oh, and we have about thirty pounds of Halloween candy in our house (that’s actually not that big of a deal, it hasn’t been a temptation so far).
4. It just seems so haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaard.

By the way, that chocolate almond pudding in the list below is definitely an acquired taste. I really doubt that I could get my boys to eat it. Not the older ones, anyway. I don’t mind it - the taste is fine, it’s the texture that is a teensy bit off.

I didn’t get much sleep last night. We went up to bed around 9:00 but I started reading and then my oldest son started throwing up. He mentioned a sore belly in the evening but was able to keep stuff down until about 9:00. Poor kid was in there every ten minutes until at least midnight, and then the best exit point flipped for a while and he had the runs, then I heard him retching some more about about 3:45 AM. I did sleep between about midnight and 3:45 but I felt really bad about it, but not bad enough that I didn’t drift back off until about 6:00 AM.

I should mention that I’m probably a little extra bloated today. Today was the first day of my monthlies, y’see. I usually pop on a couple of pounds the day before I start, but it drops off pretty quickly.

So … I’m a bit tired, but certainly not hungry. So far so good.

Foods Eaten:

• Three bananas
• One smallish apple
• 1/2 orange bell pepper
• 1 carrot
• 5 radishes
• 1 stalk celery
• 4 cups loosely packed spinach
• 1/2 c salad dressing (apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, cold pressed olive oil, raw honey, sea salt)
• 1/2 c not raw homemade hummus (chickpeas, tahini, garlic, olive oil)
• 1 c  not raw wasabi peas
• 1/2 c almond chocolate pudding (soaked almonds, raw cocoa, dates, raw honey - not totally raw, since I did add some store bought unsweetened almond milk to smooth it up a bit)
• 1 not raw flour tortilla
• 2 slices not raw rice “cheese”
• 1/2 c not raw homemade hummus
• Chopped onion, lettuce, tomato
• Two pieces cinnamon-date manna bread (raw bread you can find in the freezer section)
• Two teaspoonsish raw almond butter

Activities:

• 40 minutes on the treadmill at about 3 miles per hour.

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