And on the Sabbath Day of Raw Vegan Food, even God rested

So I totally caved... Saturday night after the Holi Color Festival. It wasn't so much that all that color throwing had me working up some uncontrollable appetite. No, it was more a combination of eating a handful of carrots and grapes with a glass of pinapple juice to sustain me until three in the afternoon; and as we were leaving the festival we made the mistake of walking past a few of the food vendors with curry deliciousness and roasted chicken wafting through the air.

It was like the devil had been clothed in Chicken Tikka Masala... come to steal my detox right from underneath me!

Danny kept talking about hitting up the Bombay House for date night; and after eating (literally) like a rabbit for the better part of the week, I had nothing left to fight off temptation.

And that's true in so many ways:

A random sampling of the 'fare' from Omars.

These are the raw vegan sushi option.

I think they use crushed macadameia nuts in place of rice.

That food (or lack there of) made me loopy. Danny and I joke that I hadn't won an argument with him in five days. My brain seemed to stop working. I wasn't as quick witted (well, for me. It's a sliding scale, you know). I couldn't form complete thoughts or sentences. Even at yoga (when I wasn't on the verge of blacking out), I had to concentrate so hard on what the instructor was saying... just to get my body in the right position. I just kind of always felt a step behind.

Danny's logic was that even God rested on the 7th Day--and moreoever, that my "Sabbath' (or sabbatical from vegan-raw)should start at Sundown. I texted my lady-friends to tell them I was hanging up the jersey early, and by nightfall, I had indulged in amazing Indiana Food and coconut cream pie (not so Indian, but still amazing)... oh, and had managed to gain every bit of weight lost in the experiment back in water weight and happiness.

THE END

Well for now at least. I've got a bit more to report on... especially now that I can think again. But for now, I will say I am glad the experiment is over with and I don;t ever have to do that again. At least not for 6 days... 3 is fine. A week is just crazy.

My Fruitneral: Day 6 of the Raw Vegan Week Challenge

You'd think I'm pregnant with the odd dreams I've been having about raw food (I'm not, I assure you. Though I'd kind of like to be actually.) Ugh! Two more days.... chant with me:

TWO MORE DAYS!

TWO MORE DAYS!

What irks me is I could've bought a gorgeous pair of stilettos and a hand bag from Nordstrom with the amount of money we've spent at Omar's alone this week...but if it wasn't for him, and his delicious sauces at Rawtopia, I'd be stuck cursing citrus fruit and lettuce wedges (well, cursing them more than I already do).

In case you're just joining us, I am on a week long challenge of eating only RAW-VEGAN-FOOD with a few friends. I've lost a few pounds (apparently it's fluctuating a little bit as I was 139.5 this morning). But it's supposed to be super healthy for you. According to the never-wrong, always perfectly cited Wikipedia:

"Raw vegans believe that foods cooked above [115 degrees] have lost much of their nutritional value and are less healthy or even harmful to the body. Typical foods include fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and sprouted grains and legumes.[...]Raw vegans can be subdivided into fruitarians, juicearians, or sproutarians. Fruitarians eat primarily or exclusively fruits and nuts. Juicearians process their raw plant foods into juice. Sproutarians adhere to a diet consisting mainly of sprouted seeds."

I feel like I'm a combination of all three. But that quote seems kind of odd to me, because Notting Hill had me believe that a Fruitarian was something a little different:

"Keziah: We believe that fruits and vegetables have feeling so we think cooking is cruel. We only eat things that have actually fallen off a tree or bush - that are, in fact, dead already.
William: Right. Right. Interesting stuff. So, these carrots...
Keziah: Have been murdered, yes.

William: Murdered? Poor carrots. How beastly!"

When I think about how many carrots I've murdered this week, it almost makes me want to give up the whole project and stick to eating non-food items. You know like things created in a lab by food-science doctors with a relentless industrial marketing machine and lobbyists on capital hill that try to tell us we're better off eating a protein-shake with maltodexrin, soy lecithin and 20 other varieties of soy and corn products than say...some spinach?

Or not.

I guess I'll stick to murdering my vegetables for a couple of more days. Crazy to think they're being eaten alive. Well to paraphrase my little sister regarding the raw-food-project: "Hey, it's your fruitneral." Or the carrots funeral, depending on how you look at it.

Day 4 of Vegan-Raw-Food Week

So Tuesday night it was chicken, and last night I dreamt of potatoes.... roasted with olive oil, rosemary and colby jack cheese. Yummers. Soon enough, I remind myself.

The scale says 140...so that's basically a pound a day. Call it water-weight, toxins, junkies...whatever you want, but I actually feel smaller. (Unless I put on my skinny jeans right out of the dryer. That's always a humbling experience.)

I think I'm past the worst of it. And by lunch today I'll be officially half way.

Danny's been a great sport about it too. We've modified his eating a bit. He's joining me in the vegan thing (and staying away from processed sugars/starches) this week. He's eating what I eat for breakfast and dinner, but he'll enjoy steamed veggies at lunch ...he also had my home-made hummus with carrot sticks last night for dinner. (Garbonzo beans are 'cooked' before I grind them with tahini, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil and cumin...so the 'cooking' obviously puts hummus off the list for me.) But this 'cleanse' is not really as far of a jump for me as it is for him; and he goes out to eat for lunch with business people every day...and they're not dining at Omar's, you know?

Other than that, this new food regime continues to have me wrestling with questions about my food and lately, I've been asking myself what I've been learning from this experiment.

It's not really like me to deny my body something it's craving so much. Like say, hummus. (I mean home-made hummus is not exactly the equivalent of a hostess powdered doughnut six-pack).

Usually, when I can tell I really need something (e.g. craving roast when I was pregnant with Holden), I eat it. Unfortunately, I also have the nasty habit of eating what I want--not just what I need. (My past cupcake addictions are great examples...not to mention how I stuffed my face during the holidays after I finally got below 140 lbs; and subsequently gained it all back as a result).

Though right now, I don't crave cupcakes or brownies and candy isn't even on the radar (though I'm not really a candy person anyway)...my body seems pretty content with the amount of natural sugars I'm getting from all this fruit. But a slice of home-made pizza with whole wheat pita bread crust? That may be the first thing I indulge in.

I guess what I'm learning is to distinguish the wants verses needs in my body. This is also teaching me just how overwhelming the food-processing industrial machine is...you can't even buy 'almond milk' without have some kind of additive.

Even my beloved canned garbonzo beans are processed with "sugar, salt, calcium chloride, sodium sulfate and calcium disodium EDTA." (Michael Pollan would be so disappointed.) I have no idea what half of those things are, but I'm really glad I've been at least rinsing them off in the past. Guess I'll be starting another tradition of cooking my own lentils too.

Driving a Mustang

So I am looking hip this Thursday afternoon; cruising the freeways of Oregon in my 2007 Chevy Mustang (rental). . . that’s a lot of car for an aspiring vegetarian.

Speaking of trees . . .

I was a vegetarian for years. . . I even tried being a vegan in college for a little while; but I kept passing out at Volleyball practice. One time when my parents came to visit, my dad made me order a salad with turkey on it. . . I hid the turkey underneath some of the lettuce to make it look like I had eaten it. My dad was so proud until our outside hitter, Michelle “Mitch” (forgot her last name) . . . anyway, until Mitch ratted me out. It was actually pretty funny when I think about it. Some 21 year old playing food games being “outted” by a girl a couple of years her junior. . . . classic.

Speaking of classic. . . .

Danny and I are going to a baseball game this weekend. . . nothing too cache. Just a national pastime “Bees” game at Franklin Covey Field .. .

Then we’re going to see Cindy Lauper in concert with Debbie Harry (of “BLONDIE” fame) and Eurasure (of 80s fame) on Saturday night. It’s a benefit concert for Lesbians or something . . . hey, girls just wanna have fun. Who are we to argue?

And I got another job . . .

I have a title this time (I mean, everyone has a title, but this one comes with a bit more responsibility and prestige.

Speaking of prestige . . .

Danny and I did a combined 8 loads of laundry yesterday. . . does that rival driving a mustang?