The alarm clock woke me up mid-dream this morning.  I was dreaming that I was eating a raw food mixture.  When I went to see David Wolfe speak in Orlando, a raw food group in the lobby was giving out raw food samples that  supposedly tasted like grilled chicken.  I did not partake of the sample myself (it had spices in it), but saw a big crowd at that particular table.  I think depriving myself of that experience left me longing for it, so I worked the problem out in my head by dreaming about that point in time.

Dreams aside, I’ve been receiving some feedback that this is not the ideal diet for a person to be on.  While I can see myself agreeing with that statement if it refers to being 100% raw for life without any sort of supplementation (B12 for example), I can not agree with its validity when it refers to being on the raw food diet for 30 days.

There is so much conflicting information in the world today and so many diets that it’s hard to know what to believe.  What I do know is that I’m on the diet.  I have been on the diet for the past 19 days.  The way I feel is real, I’m not dreaming about it.  While some people can speculate on all the things this diet lacks, few have ever tried it.  Even fewer have experienced the unfathomable bliss it brings.  That’s one of the reasons I undertook this experiment – to let the those people know what they’re missing! It’s easy to say, “The raw food diet is a another diet fad, it doesn’t work.” But without going raw yourself, you’ll just be parroting back the things you’ve heard or relying on information that’s been spread by corporations with hidden agendas.

Breakfast

I had some organic papaya for breakfast, I’m trying to expand my raw food diet palette.  If I see a fruit that is exotic, I usually buy it.  I liked the papaya’s taste when I first put it into my mouth, but I felt the juice had a weird aftertaste, which I was not particularly fond of.  I cleansed the not so tasty juice out by eating the bananas.  Then I ate the pears.

1. organic papaya (341g)
2. organic bananas (316g)
3. organic pears (786g)

After breakfast I felt great, as I usually do.  I had a peaceful energy around me.  It felt like I was nestled in a blanket of sunshine.  I lacked the euphoria I experienced on Day 19, but I still felt happy, contemplative, and relaxed.  The thing I appreciate most about this diet is the emotional balance it brings.  All the noise, the doubt, the stress, that was in me before (even if it was just in small amounts), seems to be gone now.  I’m a newer, happier, me.

I’m glad I’m on the raw food diet.  On top of feeling better, I’ve also had a chance to explore new foods that I’d never tried before.  Like most people, if you had asked me to name some fruits before the raw food diet experiment, I would have said, “Bananas, strawberries and apples.”  Now while those fruits are delicious, they are not that interesting.  They don’t lead to new sensations or experiences, they certainly don’t ignite any interesting conversations.  Contrast this with the papaya, the mamey sapote, and the blood oranges (I had these for dinner) and you realize how limited my fruit choices have been until now. If these three tasty fruits exist, there’s no telling how many other varieties of exotic fruits there are available for me to try.

Not only am I expanding my world, but I’m making new friends by talking about the things I’m doing.  I have made several new friends just by talking about this diet and the blog.  The people I talked to wanted to hear more about it.  They saw the passion and energy I had when talking about the raw food diet and most of them were hooked.  I say most because I lost a few when I mentioned the raw food diet involved eating no meat.  Even so, the carnivores were still interested in hearing about the benefits of going raw.  I’ll post those in a future post after I’ve completed the full 30 Days.

Lunch

For lunch I had a mixed salad and a green smoothie.  It tasted great.  As a bonus I also threw in two mangoes.

1. organic mangoes (638g)
2. mixed salad: romaine lettuce, red cabbage, organic carrot shavings (287g), organic tomatoes (272g)
3. green smoothie: organic bananas (278g), organic baby spinach (110g),  2 & 1/2  cups of water

This salad is pretty much standard in my diet.  Today, I did not feel the need to make the smoothie complicated so I just made it using ripe bananas and green spinach.  Spinach is a great source of beta-carotene, a powerful disease fighting anti-oxidant that’s been shown to reduce the risk of developing cataracts, heart disease, and even cancer, so I try to eat as much spinach as I can.  I don’t like eating it plain, but it tastes great if I put it in a blender with some ripe bananas.

Dinner

I was looking forward to eating dinner tonight.  I had spotted some red colored mini-oranges at the store and I decided to try them.  They are called blood oranges.  The peel of the fruit is semi-red with the rest being orange.  Once the fruit is peeled, it has a dark red color.   As soon as I bit down into one, I realized the name is a prefect fit. The juice dripping down my hand looked almost like real blood.  Hence their name.

1. organic blood oranges (320g)
2. organic raspberries (174g)
3. organic blueberries (129g)
4. organic blackberries (171g)
5. organic bananas (255g)

I wanted my taste buds to be fresh for the blood oranges, so I ate the oranges first.  They tasted sweet and mellow, mostly like regular oranges only a bit more tangy.  If I had to describe them I would say, 90% orange and 10% cranberry.  I liked them and might try them again in the future if they are available.  I ate the berries next, along with the bananas.

Post Dinner

About a half hour before hitting the gym I ate some organic pumpkin seeds and two Fuji apples.

1. organic pumpkin seeds (80g)
2. organic Fuji apples (239g)

The pumpkin seeds don’t taste that great on their own, but add two apples and they go down a whole lot smoother.

Vitals

Weight: I lost .4 lbs.  I definitely don’t think I ate enough calories on Day 19.  This puts me at 175.4 lbs.

Body Temperature: My temperature came in at 97.8 °F.

pH levels: The average pH level today was 7.50 pH.  I think I’ve hit the plateau.

Blood Pressure: Systolic blood pressure was at 126. The diastolic was at 69.

Endurance: I ran the mile with ease.  I felt like I was gliding through it.

Strength: My strength seems to be stable.  The weight I’m doing is not hard.  I feel like I am challenged, but that I can add more weight if I need to.

Cognitive Capacity: Still sharp.  I don’t see the mental powers going away any time soon.  My brain feels like a sports car.  It can rev-up when needed and just cruises around the rest of the time.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 20th, 2009 at 11:52 pm and is filed under Diet, Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Other posts you might be interested in:

• Raw Food Wisdom
• 10 Ways to Become a Raw Foodist
• Raw Food Diet – Cooked Food Cravings
• Raw Food Diet – Day 31
• Raw Food Diet – Day 30