What does this mean? Does it mean that I’ve gone off the wagon, as you may have surmised from my last post? Or that I’ve given up? No. On the contrary, what it means is only that I’ve been crazy busy. Too crazy busy, in fact, to think pay much attention to food. More importantly, perhaps, it means that raw food has become such a part of my life that I don’t HAVE to think it about it that much.

I’ve settled into a food routine that seems to work well for me and my family. For me, that means about 70% raw to 30% cooked food. Of the cooked food, except for when we’re out at restaurants, it’s mostly organic and unprocessed foods. And that makes me feel good.

What have I learned during these last six months?

1. A raw food lifestyle is difficult at first, but like any change of habit, it becomes easier over time.
2. It’s better to ease into it than it is to go “cold turkey” from cooked to raw foods.
3. It isn’t a magic weight-loss pill (I haven’t lost a pound since I started).
4. It isn’t a magic energy pill. I’ve always owned a pretty high level of energy, which fluctuates from time to time, as it does for everyone, based on hormones, amount of sleep, etc. I haven’t experienced a significant change of energy, one way or the other.
5. It isn’t a magic health pill. I’ve read countless testimonies of people who swear that a raw food diet does everything from cure cancer to eliminate allergies. Perhaps it does, for some. I’ve always had a strong immune system and enjoyed exceptionally good health. In fact, during these last six months, I’ve probably experienced more health problems than usual. I can’t chalk that up to the raw food diet, however, as it’s much more likely a result of perimenopause.
6. Raw food, prepared well, tastes absolutely wonderful.
7. I feel better when I eat raw. At first read, this may seem to contradict numbers 4 and 5 above, but this feel-good is of a different kind. It’s like the feel-good I experienced when I switched back to vegetarianism after a period of eating meat. My body seemed clearer, cleaner, somehow. It’s the same now. The higher the percentage of raw food, the more my energy feels cleaner. It’s not that I have more of it; it’s that the quality of my energy seems higher. Certainly not something I could quantify.

Where do I go from here? The experiment isn’t finished, though I’ve adjusted my overall raw-to-cooked food goal from 80/20 to 70/30. I think, from here on out, I’ll be blogging less often (though not as infrequently as once a month) and focusing on new bits of information, recipes, and experiences.

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Apparently, there are many stories about the origin of the saying, but the most reasonable explanation dates from the early 20th century, when the Temperance Movement was in full swing. To say someone was “on the wagon,” was to say that they were on the water-wagon, implying that they were drinking water and abstaining from alcohol. (Horse-drawn water wagons used to spray the dirt roads in the summer to keep the dust down.)

My online dictionary widget defines the word temperance as “moderation or self-restraint, especially in eating and drinking.” I don’t like to think of my efforts as abstinence or even self-restraint. That seems kind of negative. It’s not about using my self discipline to not eat cooked food, as much as it is to focus on eating the healthiest, uncompromised food available.

Hmm…

Still, I have those days where it’s cold out, and I want something hot to warm my bones, or I’m tired and don’t really feel like preparing two separate meals (one for my family and one for me), when I’m most apt to give in to convenience and peer pressure. Then I’ll eat whatever’s easiest. But I don’t always feel good about it afterwards. Contrast that with when I consciously decide to have a cooked meal after two or three days of eating 100% raw — because I want to. Then I feel fine about it. It’s all a matter of attitude.

Eating raw requires changing the way I think about and approach food. Sometimes, when I’m standing with the refrigerator doors open, grazing for snacks, all I have to do to stay on track is ask, “What will feel good?” Then I find myself reaching for the fruits and vegetables, instead of a piece of bread.

Oh, and speaking of snacks … remind me to tell you sometime about the “Fig Nuttin’s” I made (another Raw Revolution recipe). I have to hide them from my 14-year old son.

Lunches have their rotation, too. Flax-crackers, raw cheese, and a big salad is the easiest, quickest combination I’ve come up with that provides me with the protein and greens I need, while keeping the calorie count down. If I don’t have the cheese, I’ll add some nuts to the salad. It might sound monotonous, but it’s not really all that unvaried — after all, no two salads are alike. Butter lettuce, spinach, kale, arugula, and romaine lettuce are my favorite salad “bases.” To those, I add a variety of diced or chopped or sliced veggies, sprouts, nuts, and sometimes fruits. Different salad dressings change the flavor significantly. And I like all the chewing involved — it’s very satisfying!

If I don’t want salad, soup makes its appearance. One of my recent favorites is miso soup, and I’m not talking about the kind of miso soup you get at sushi bars. Not that there’s anything wrong with that soup; I love it. But, I’m talking about the kind of miso soup that is hearty and full of fresh, raw vegetables. Hmm… maybe I’ll make some of that for dinner tonight.

This is a picture of some miso soup I made recently – the veggies and assorted other things floating about in it include carrots, green onion, zucchini, mushrooms, tofu, and sesame seeds. Of course, it also includes ginger and garlic. I use hot water when I make the miso and let the veggies, sit in it a bit to soften. They are thinly sliced, so it doesn’t take very long to make. Tofu isn’t raw, of course, but I need the extra protein. This is a complete meal.

Frankly, because I have already been eating organic, fresh foods and have been a vegetarian for over fifteen years, eating raw has not been the complete change of diet that it might be for someone more meat and fast-food oriented. However, there are some things that I think will continue to be a part of my diet long into the future.

Fresh squeezed orange juice is one of these delightful changes. Organic orange juice is expensive, no matter how you get it. In the stores, pasteurized, organic orange juice usually costs between $6 and $7 dollars for a 1/2 gallon carton. The cost of fresh juice is actually fairly competitive. Most of the time, I can buy a bag of scruffy-looking organic Valencia oranges for around a dollar a pound, and two of those oranges will produce about 6 ounces of fresh, pulpy juice (I’ve always liked the pulp).

Unless I’m making a large quantity of juice, I really dislike using a juicer because it’s just a lot of work to clean. So, Rich bought me this handy little juicing device — it sits on the top of a cup or glass, and you just squeeze and twist the orange right on top.

The juice runs into the glass, while the slots in the bottom of the device catch the seeds and the larger pieces of pulp.

And there you are — with a fresh glass of gland-delighting juice. There really is no comparison with the store-bought kind, no matter how carefully it’s been processed. It seems almost decadent!

For the last 5 days, I have been breakfasting on smoothies.  All of my smoothies have the same base: 1/2-1 cup almond milk, 1/2 cup fresh-squeezed orange juice (2 valencia oranges), 1 Tbl protein powder, and 1 tsp. Kyo Supergreens. (Sometimes I’ll use 1/2 cup Kefir + 1/2 cup water + 1 tsp agave nectar in place of the almond milk.) To this base, I usually add a banana and different types of other fresh and frozen fruit, such as blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, peaches, mangoes, pineapple, etc. I think my all-out favorite, though is banana/pineapple/mango/coconut.

For lunch, I have either soup or salad with 1-2 ounces of raw cheese for quick protein. Yesterday, I made a sweet potato carrot ginger soup. It was pretty good, though I think that acorn squash would work as well or better than the potato. It’s a pretty golden color and the ginger makes it a nice, warming soup for winter.

Sweet Potato Carrot Ginger Soup

1 small sweet potato, peeled & grated
2 carrots, peeled & grated
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 clove garlic
1-2 tsp minced ginger (according to taste)
2-3 Cups hot water
1/2 rip avocado, peeled and chopped
1/8 tsp cardamom
salt & pepper to taste
1 Tbl maple syrup (optional)

Place the sweet potato, carrots, onions, garlic and ginger in a blender. Bring water just to a simmer and pour over the vegetables in the blender and let sit for 2-5 minutes. Add avocado, cardamom, salt, pepper & maple syrup if desired and blend for 60 seconds.

For dinner, I have salad or soup again, depending on what I had for lunch and what I feel like eating. If that doesn’t feel like enough food, I might supplement it with a piece of Ezekial bread, toasted.

Another great staple for the every-day-raw diet is zucchini pasta. It’s so easy to make and I think much tastier than its flour predecessor. In order to make it, you need a spiralizer — this great little device that turns zucchini into something like angel hair pasta. To this, I add a marinara sauce made with sun-dried tomatoes or raw, homemade pesto sauce. (Lately, I’ve been avoiding the pesto because it’s got so much oil and nuts in it.)

Anyway, it feels like I’m back on track. For the past few days, I’ve achieved a 90-95% raw food ratio, and I feel good. My energy is returning. In fact, I feel a little like I’m returning to my self.