Raw Food Diet: Day 11
I am on day 11 of a 70% Raw Food Diet. I feel absolutely outstanding.
I actually hate the term diet. It implies that you are going through some huge ordeal. It implies pain. It implies that you actually need to keep track of things in painstaking detail. It implies that your gains will be fleeting (as most diets are). Regardless, I am still going to use the term. So this “diet†of mine entails eating 50-70% of my diet from Raw and Water-Rich foods. It’s really easy to do. It’s not painful. And the benefits (below) are powerful enough to give me enough motivation to stick with it.
My breakfast and lunches are mostly raw, and my dinners are really whatever the heck I want to eat. Even at dinner, I try to have a salad or some veggies. My typical breakfast is a few pieces of fruit, or a few handfuls of carrots and almonds. Lunch is a big plate of salad with wild greens or spinach, and a bunch of other veggies. I will NOT use any dressing. Instead, I’ll sprinkle some sunflower seeds and olive oil on it. Following this diet is very easy during the work day since we have a killer salad bar. In the afternoons if I get hungry, I’ll have some Odwalla Carrot Juice or a SuperFood drink.
The benefits I am seeing right now after 11 days:
- The interesting thing about this diet, is that I am not at all hungry in the afternoons. I would normally be starving by 3-4pm, even after eating a big plate of food and some other snacks. Not any more.
- I have a much more even energy level. I love coffee and am not avoiding it on purpose, but I haven’t had coffee in the past 10 days at work….I just haven’t felt like I’ve needed it.
- I’m able to wake up in the morning much easier, almost as easy as when I was back in grade school! I’ve actually found myself waking up at 6am and making myself go back to sleep since it was too early.
- I’ve noticed my skin clearing up quite a bit.
- I’ve lost 6 pounds (and I was skinny to begin with) with no noticeable loss in strength
- I have a remarkable improvement in mental clarity
I’ll keep posting as things progress. I plan to maintain this for 30 days and then reassess.
Couple things:
1. Veganism still implies you eat cooked foods (breads, cereals, rice, egg-free pastas, etc). I am not vegan. Actually, right now, in the 30% of foods I am eating non-raw…I am consuming some dairy (eating pizza out with friends, etc).
2. Hydration: hydration is really important. Howver, I have gone through long periods (when I was vegan, doing lots of yoga and triathlons back in 2002-2003) where I did not drink much coffe at all (one cup a week on average). I’ve also always been very good at hydrating. When you do hot yoga, if you aren’t drinking water all day, you won’t make it through class (literally). I suppose my control is my own past 10 years of experience, where I’ve been testing different things.
That said, eating water rich foods is NOT the same as just dirnking lots of water. For example, if you go out to a bar, at drink 5 shots of tequila, can you 100% counteract any ill effect by just guzzling a bunch of water? Your body is the same way. Water will help to make you feel better and healthier, but it will not (on its own) counteract the toxins generated from a crappy diet.
ravisraman
June 17, 2006 at 5:06 pm
Doesn’t this equate to a return to veganism? Also, how much of the gain would you attribute to better overall hyrdration? Without a solid control, it’s hard for me to understand the real impact. You’re removed coffee, +1 for hydration. You’re eating more fruits/veggies, +1 for hydration. After you tire of this diet
, it would be interesting to see the comparable results with the same level of hydration.
I’d offer my own results, but my fingers are too greasy from the chili cheese dog.
Denali
June 16, 2006 at 6:24 pm