A Day in the Life of an LFRVer

I know, the last thing this world needs is another acronym, but I'll throw one out at you anyway... LFRV stands for Low-Fat Raw Vegan, which is kind of a handful to write down every time. LFRV is known under a few other names, namely "811" (based off of Dr. Doug Grahams'80/10/10). The gist of the being 811 is that you get 80% of your calories from carbs (fruits and veggies), 10% from protein, and 10% from healthy fats (avocados, nuts, and seeds). Because you're primarily eating healthy alkalinizing foods, you have to eat A LOT more of them than you would on a standard diet (think how quickly it would take to digest 1lb. of bananas vs. a 1lb. steak). As an active person, it is suggested you eat your weight x 200 in calories (so for me that would be 2400ish+). That usually means 2 ginormo fruit meals during the day (we're speaking pounds of fruit here) and a big salad for dinner. Who says you have to go hungry this way?

The thing is, when I decided to go raw almost two years ago now (wow, already?!), I didn't really read up on anything. I knew how nutrition worked (how much of what I should be getting a day to get all my vitamins/minerals) and I knew where my ethical limits related to food were (eating only organic food, vegan foods, honey), but that was pretty much it. Sure I read up on some raw blogs and talked to a couple of those blog writers online (thanks forever, Meredith!!) but I mostly followed my intention, and I now realize that my gut instinct on a raw diet was pretty much 811. It's what I naturally chose to do when I thought of what eating raw "should" mean.

Problem was that I was probably only getting about 1200 in calories per day while remaining highly active. While this initially gave me fantabulous results (busting a 10k run out of nowhere, having clearer skin than ever, getting to my goal weight, having more mental clarity and energy than I thought was possible, and never EVER needing to use an alarm clock), it wasn't sustainable. I think I was only about to keep that up for about 6 months before I started wanting more, which led to a lot of the more recent stuff you've been reading (more cooked vegan foods, gourmet raw deliciousness and the like). Had I known it was just about eating more of the same thing I would have done that!

I am in no way advocating against anyone's personal choices (except I do still take a stand on eating organic), but I am saying that this is easily the dietary choice that has helped me feel the best in my life seems to be the one I want to focus most of my attention on. I will never be a fascist about my food choices, but I do want this to be 90% or more of my time (with the other 10% still being some degree of raw). Sometimes I'll eat more protein, sometimes I'll have more fat, and sometimes I may just eat that raw macaroon.

My first day (Monday) was quite the challenge. Most of the produce we bought over the weekend wasn't ripe yet (mostly the high calorie fruits I need like bananas and mangos), so I struggled to eat enough. Just so you know, it's a lot easier to down 5-6 bananas then it is to eat 5-6 apples in one sitting. But here's what I tried to stick with in the meantime:

Breakfast Day 1: 1.5 C blueberries, 1/2 bunch of spinach, some goji berries and mulberries, and spirulina

Lunch Day 1: 3 apples, 3 dates, irish moss

Dinner Day 1: massaged kale salad with lemon juice and avocado, cucumbers, tomatoes, sprouts, celery, carrot, broccoli, and a side of homemade sauerkraut

Tuesday was a breeze since we found a stash of ripe bananas at the Wheat Berry. My day went something like this:

Breakfast Day 2: 4 kiwis + 1.5 oranges + goji and mulberries

Lunch Day 2: 4 bananas and 1 date

Dinner was another huge salad, and breakfast this morning was 2 mango, cilantro, lime, smoothie. Delicious! And as usual, the energy is high, the need for lots of sleep is decreasing, and the world is bright and shiny again :)

But of course, for those who want more than fruit. I also made a carrot cupcake for Andrew using Bitt's recipe. It was AWESOME. Definitely try it out!