The funny thing about cooked foods — they are addictive!  I remember when I first read Victoria Boutenko’s 12 Steps to Raw Foods.  She talks a lot about the addiction in there and I thought she was crazy.  That was four years ago.  Now, I totally agree.  If you don’t, just try to stop eating cooked foods and watch how your brain starts to rationalize.

Needless to say, dinner was rice noodles.  Breakfast this morning was American style — eggs, potatoes, some pancakes.  Amazingly, I don’t feel tired or sluggish, but I do feel weighed down and bloated.

Guilty?  Well, yes, a small bit.  Isn’t it funny how much emotional junk we have around our food choices?  Hard to let that go as I think it is really mixed in with the addiction.

Tomorrow, Sunday, I am planning on getting back into it.  I’m going to flush out the body with some fruit, and get excited for the week to come.  I am very eager to back to the gym and get this challenge flowing once more.  Hopefully, my work will cooperate a little bit more this time.

A local newspaper, the Aurora Sentinel, interviewed me about raw food.  You can read the article here.  Now this coming Monday, CW2 wants to have me on the air for a 3.5 minute interview and raw food demo.  If you are in the Denver area, watch CW2 at 7:45am to see how I do!  I will see if I can post the video live after it is done.

I have still been 100% raw.

I have not been back to the gym since last week.

I am giving myself the permission to go with the flow and let this situation pass, before kicking it back up a notch.

I will post again when life has started to return to normal (Friday?)

Saturday was a raw-luck!  It was awesome and a lot of fun!  We had about 12 people show up, including a special guest — Carol who runs the Boulder group!  The food was great, including some amazing raw crackers that were more like crisp flat bread, and some raw pickles!   I gave a young coconut demo and we had a blast cracking into a case and sharing the yumminess inside.  Thubten took some video, will see if it is worth posting on YouTube or not!

Sunday I taught an Internet Entrepreneurs class.  It was also awesome and a lot of fun!  And exhausting!  We had to get up super early to drop the dog off and was up super late the night before making sure we had enough raw food to make it through the day.  I brought lots of nut milk, dried fruit, salad, wraps, and oatmeal raisin cookies (I will be posting the recipe later).

Now that today is a new week, I will start my goal of getting to the gym every day over again.  Last week it didn’t work out because of the overnight shift we pulled at work. I am excited to listen to my PodFitness today!

Thursday, I didn’t really eat much at all.  Some nutmilk, dried fruit, and that was about it.  Just wasn’t hungry!   Today, however, I had a bit more:

On the menu:

• 1 QT chocolate nut-milk
• Handful of gojis
• Handful of raisins
• 1 Lara Bar - chocolate mint, yum
• 10 rawviolis — zucchini that I sliced into thin pasta rounds and stuffed two of them with some pesto nut cheese (based on this recipe by Teri)
• 4 lettuce wraps — green leaf lettuce stufed with guacamole, more zucchini, mango salsa (diced mango, diced red onion, salt, cumin)

At the gym:

• Didn’t make it to the gym either day but that’s OK as I can tell my body just needs the rest.  Still have some sore muscles from swimming too!

Tomorrow is the raw pot-luck!  Not sure what to bring, but I am excited to chow-down!

On the menu:

• Yummy salad (quinoa, red peppers, lemon/honey dressing)
• 2 QTs chocolate nut-milk (almond, sesame seeds, quinoa, cashews, dates)
• 1 c goji berries
• 1/2 c cashews
• maybe some other stuff

At the gym:

• 45 minutes of intense PodFitness elipitcal.  I told PodFitness to step it up a notch and boy was it intense. I’m telling you, you gotta try that service!

Today’s agenda: Work, Swim, Work, Teach, Crash.

On the menu:

• 1 QT water + 1 lemon
• 1 QT almond milk + vanilla + 2 dates + cinnamon
• 1/2 huge salad (left over from yesterday) — red peppers, romaine, spinach, quinoa
• 1 c cashews
• 5 raw chocolate truffles
• Some raw chips with guacamole

At the gym:

• About 25 minutes of splashing around in the pool — freestyle, back stroke, butterfly, and even some running. It was great to be back in the water and the saline pool is soooo great! Boy I am tired though! Being in the water is an awesome full-body workout!

Speaking of, the gym was super fun — it has been way too long since I have been there (last summer?) I listened to my PodFitness routine and let me tell you, that is one of the best products ever!  It was so much fun, they give you encouragement, reminders, tell you when it is time to change your pace, etc.  All to your own music!

On the menu:

• 1 qt water + 1 lemon + 1T MSM
• 2 HUGE gala apples + 2 dates, diced and yummy
• 4 oz of Wicked Chili Almonds — not really so wicked, but very yummy

At the gym:

• 35 minutes of  cardio on the elliptical

The evening was topped off with ‘classe de espanol con Maru’.  I was worried because last week we were told that there would be birthday cake (for me and the other Pisces student) and some Jewish baked goods/sweets (in honor of the holiday that just passed).  If someone makes me a cake for me I will feel compelled to eat it… but the good news is there was no food there, it seems everyone forgot and that was much to my benefit!

By the time I got home (10pm) I was exhausted and had a really bad detox headache.  I think my water intake was too low for the day and that contributed to it as well.   How do I know it was detox headache?  Well, as Matt Monarch says, do a colonic and you will feel better.  I didn’t do a colonic but I did have a major bowel movement and when it was all said and done, I felt worlds better.

When I read her posts talking about what she was going to do, it really inspired me to jump in with her. Starting tomorrow, March 23rd, I am going to commit to 12 weeks of raw food and fitness, just to see how far I can go.

What does a Raw Fitness Challenge look like?

I think the challenge is unique to the individual. My friend Teri made a big list of the exercises that she is going to take on. My friend Thubten has taken on eating 100% raw for a full year and doing yoga. For me, I am going to follow a simple game plan:

• Eat 100% raw
• Get back to the gym
  • M-F only, weekends are free to rest and enjoy outdoors activities with my friends (spring has sprung!)
  • At least three days of cardio and two days of swimming, but this will depend on how my body is reacting to the changes.
  • Listen to fun routines created by PodFitness
• Release the emotional attachments that prevent me from choosing health on a daily basis.

How to begin this challenge?

Well, just jump in!  I think my mind is ready for the challenge as I have been thinking about how to move into total health since my birthday (one month ago.)  Today I am digging out the gym bag and making sure I have everything I need.  About two weeks ago, I went to the running store and bought new shoes — they took video of me running and I learned that I need special shoes because I overpronate.  I have created a meal plan and some menu ideas, so that I can be prepared for the hunger.  Eric is going to take on a challenge of his own, too; that should help make things easier at home.

 How about you?

Why don’t you consider taking on  a fitness challenge of your own?  Summer is just a few months away, how great would it be for you to be ready for outdoor adventures?!   Post a comment or write to me and let me know what you are up to…

I chose to give myself the gift of real health to myself this year.  I’m not quite sure what that will look like so I will give it some time to manifest and we can see what comes up.  Stay tuned!

I don’t think my body is ready to do a feast.  I think I need to look at my hydration — I might be chronically dehydrated like David mentioned — and I am concerned that I don’t have a strong enough taste for the green juices, which means I will fail.  David and Katrina posted in their blog today about starting to build up the desire for greens and I really think that is a great tip.  To all you future feasters, make sure you like your greens!

Well, I will continue to use this blog as a way to share my growth and progress on the dietary journey.  I do see myself completeing a juice feast in the near future; perhaps I will consider starting March 1st with the Global Juice Feast.