Getting back on track...

Food for the Day

1. Woke up and had some hot lemon water

2. Papaya + Banana smoothie (just the fruits and water) with maca and mesquite powders

3. Green Juice (cucumber, celery, kale, parsley, ginger, carob powder)

4. 1 pear

5. Honeybush Tea

I feel like I have some 'splaining to do: My sudden desire to go on yet another mini-cleanse not only came from sudden inspiration by Heather's blog (as I mentioned yesterday), but largely from having dabbled with certain non-raw foods for half a day for the first time in the last little while and feeling absolutely gross because of it. Now, you might automatically label me as a purist thinking it's not that big a deal to have some non-raw food every once in a while, but the scary thing is, depending on what those foods are, it can be.

Now, when we visit my parents on most weekends, my mom often makes us these incredible vegan veggie dishes that I'll just eat up. They are almost always just veggies and tofu either wonderfully steamed, stewed, or stir fried. While there are always other options for the non-raw family members, like sides of bread, rice, etc. I always just opted for the yummy veggies. Though those meals still do make me feel a little draggy afterwards, a mere veggie stew (which my mom makes with nothing but water and veggies in her magic pot) is so tasty that it's not a big digestion problem. In fact, I might just feel a little heavier afterwards, but it quickly passes.

The more difficult thing is that I always make some baked good for my dad when I'm up there, usually in the form of chocolate goodness (brownies, cakes, you name it). While I usually use whole wheat/spelt or some healthier flour, the only thing I had on hand this week was organic unbleached all-purpose (which I haven't actually eaten in a couple years). BIG mistake.

Because I always taste test anything before I put it into the oven, just those couple tastes of white flour really took their toll on me. It seems really silly to anyone not on a raw diet to understand this, but my stomach felt like it ballooned like a wet sponge. I felt heavy, lethargic, and I still don't think I'm over it yet... I know it's probably as much in my head as anything else, but I definitely didn't feel good just getting that little bit of flour, and will certainly not repeat that mistake again!

Whenever something like that happens, or even after eating something as simple as steamed veggies, I feel so justified in having chosen to go raw. When I eat raw foods, I feel pure, clean, lighter, positive, happier. When I eat cooked foods, I feel more negative, tired, and generally just not so good. It's really something you have to experience for yourself. The great thing is, the longer I'm sticking with raw foods, the more exponential my health curve is becoming, and that's just great!

Tomorrow, Andrew and I are going to Le Pain Quotidien to sit at their lovely communal table to do some inspirational work/vision board-ing for our first house :) Can't wait!