My Raw Food Blog Entries for the Entire 30-day Challenge

• Day 1, A 30-day Raw Food Challenge to Transform My Health

• Day 2, Raw Food Diet Challenge - Raw Food Blog

  Tuesday, August 26

  Weight: 123.2 pounds

  Breakfast: Once again, I had a teaspoon of BarleyMax in water, first thing. About an hour later I ate half a cantaloupe. I don’t know if it’s because I was hungry, but it was that tastiest cantaloupe I’ve had in a long time!

  It’s 9:15 AM now, and I still feel “under the weather,” with the same throat discomfort as last night. And I’m still sluggish and tired, even though I went to bed early. I’ve been through this before and know uncomfortable symptoms are to be expected when switching over to raw foods from a cooked food diet. It’s actually a good sign to me, because it means I’m cleansing.

  When I stayed at Optimum Health Institute for 21 days, we were able to take colonics to assist with cleansing. I could easily find a colonic therapist locally, but I don’t want to spend the money. Creative Health Institute is big on enemas, but frankly, I just don’t want to do that.

  However, I welcome some assistance with cleansing (because toxins are being released from my cells), so this morning I took some Fiber Cleanse, a Hallelujah Acres product that contains fiber and herbs and works gently to keep things moving. I’ve been feeling extra thirsty and am drinking a lot of water.

  Morning Snack: 12 cherries.

  Lunch: Sesame/flax cracker, almond pate, tomato, celery.

  12:45 PM - My headache is worse, plus I'm feeling very emotional. Brain fog. Can’t get into work. I think I’ll just read for a while, since I can’t sleep either. My mind won’t settle down.

  Afternoon Snack: 2 bananas blended with water, ice cubes and pinch of nutmeg.

  Dinner: Leftover faux fettuccini from Monday. I didn’t eat much…it didn’t taste as good as when it was fresh.

  I felt really bad in the afternoon and evening. I rarely get headaches in my normal life, so I’m a baby when I do get one, as I did all day today. Even worse than the headache was my emotional state, depressed, nearly despondent. I felt that I wanted to escape my thoughts and condition, so I spent a few hours reading an entertaining mystery novel and went to bed early.

• Day 3, Raw Food Diet Challenge - Raw Food Blog

  Wednesday, August 27

  Woke up feeling somewhat better than last night. My headache is improved but still there. I feel weak… probably not eating enough, but I’m not terribly hungry.

  Weight: 122.2 pounds

  1 teaspoon of BarleyMax. Breakfast: one-half cantaloupe. Mid-Morning: Mango/spinach smoothie: One mango, a couple of handfuls of baby spinach, 1-1/2 cups of water, all blended up. It tasted really good. While I was drinking the smoothie, I noticed I was starting to feel better. Hooray! To learn about my favorite high-powered blender for making extra smooth and creamy smoothies, even with tough greens, click here.

  Lunch: 2 locally grown peaches, 2 stalks of celery, a few raw cashews. Afternoon: Grated fresh ginger, honey, water. Lisa, our newest partner in the 30-day challenge, suggested this for my headache. Although the headache is gone, I thought it sounded good anyway and wanted to try it. Very tasty!

  Dinner: Big salad of arugula, carrot, red cabbage, tomato, avocado, bell pepper, cauliflower, with a teaspoon or two of olive oil and the juice of a small orange. Two sesame/flax crackers and a spoonful of curried almond pate.

  More Comments: I feel much better than yesterday. Had a productive workday. Still have a tiny sore throat and mucus drippiness back there, but my headache is gone.

  I’m enjoying the email support and encouragement of my two challenge partners, Diana and Lisa. Even though we’re all engaged in different challenges, it helps with the accountability issues and not wanting to let somebody else down. I believe this might be a key factor in successfully changing or establishing a habit.

• Day 4, Raw Food Diet Challenge - Raw Food Blog
  Thursday, August 28

  Weight: 121.2 (1 pound loss)

  I woke up feeling better, more energetic. Still have slight lingering cold/flu symptoms, like occasional sneezing/sniffling, very minor sore throat when I swallow, and some achiness. Not bad at all, though. My mood is much improved.

  BarleyMax – 1 teaspoon mixed in water. Breakfast: Watermelon – one-half of a small one. Morning Snack: Mango-spinach smoothie. It tastes even better today than yesterday.

  Lunch: Blueberries (with a tiny amount of raw agave syrup because they were tasty but quite sour), Romaine lettuce, walnuts. Afternoon Snack: 12 bing cherries

  Dinner: Blended salad. Ingredients: handful of Romaine lettuce, 1/2 cucumber, 1 stalk celery, 1/2 lemon (juiced), 1/2 red pepper, 1/2 avocado, 1 teaspoon olive oil, 1 tomato, all blended together, with a sprinkle of dried herbs on top. Snack: Three dates.

  More Comments: I felt good all day, energetic into the evening. Usually after dinner, I poop out early but last night I worked a couple of extra hours. I had a strange symptom when I got into bed, and I’m not sure if it was from sitting at the computer all day or another detox symptom. I felt achiness all across my buttocks and hips, not musculoskeletal but more the vague type of achiness that comes with the flu. I couldn’t get comfortable, so I applied some essential oils and it felt better and went away sometime during the night.

• Day 5, Continuation of the Raw Foods Diet Challenge

• Day 6, Raw Food Diet Challenge - Raw Food Blog

  Saturday, August 30

  Weight: 121.2 (no change)

  BarleyMax – 1 teaspoon mixed in water. Breakfast: One-half cantaloupe. Morning Snack: Banana. An interesting thing: This banana came from the same bunch as yesterday. It’s definitely ripe, but I still got a tummyache about 15 minutes after eating it. Before I noticed the tummy soreness, I had a big body sweat for a minute, like a hot flash. I wonder if there’s something wrong with those bananas.

  My body is probably hypersensitive, with the detoxification process. It tasted great and is labeled organic. I wonder. It makes me hesitant to eat the rest of them. Or maybe there’s something in bananas themselves that my body is reacting to. The bad feeling seems to be transient and is fading already.

  It’s interesting when I eat this way… perhaps one food at a time, with a break of a couple of hours, I’m more conscious of how my body reacts to food.

  Morning Snack (later): 3 dates

  I went for a walk at the Botanical Gardens. It’s such a beautiful place, with mountain streams flowing through and filled with indigenous North Carolina plants. I breathed deeply of the fresh air and beauty and was grateful for that place.

  Lunch:

  • 12 raw olives
  • 1-1/2 cucumbers
  • 6 grape tomatoes
  • A tiny bit of raw flax cracker with about 1/4 teaspoon of almond butter

  Snack: 15 locally grown muscadine grapes (high in the phytochemical resveratrol). Very tasty, tart and sweet, substantial, with skins that require a lot of chewing. A good snack.

  Dinner: Large salad of lettuce, arugula, carrot, red pepper, red cabbage, onion, sprinkle of raisins, raw apple cider vinegar, olive oil, pinch of salt. 4 marinated mushrooms. The mushrooms are all gone, and I’ll have to make more.

  It was a good, high-energy day.

• Day 7, The Raw Foods Diet Continues - Raw Food Blog

• Day 8, Raw Food Diet Challenge - Raw Food Blog

  Monday, September 1

  Weight: 121.2 (still no change)

  1 teaspoon of BarleyMax in water. Breakfast: One-half small watermelon. Mid-morning: Peach. After my walk, I had another teaspoon of BarleyMax.

  Lunch: Two small apples and a few cashews. Mid-afternoon: Mango-spinach smoothie. The mango was perfect. This green smoothie is simply delicious.

  Dinner: Marinated greens (see the recipe here), 2 large mushrooms.

  Comments: My emotional state has been good all day. After the smoothie, or maybe after dinner, I started feeling a sort of burning irritation in my throat or upper chest area. I started coughing and my throat kept filling with mucus. I don’t know if I was reacting to something I ate or if it’s another cleansing symptom.

• Day 9, Raw Food Diet Challenge - Raw Food Blog

  Tuesday, September 2

  Weight: 120.2 (Finally, the scale moved!)

  As usual, I had BarleyMax, 1 teaspoon in water. Breakfast: One-half cantaloupe. Midmorning Snack: Banana smoothie consisting of 1 banana, water and ice cubes to make about 1 cup, and a pinch of nutmeg.

  Lunch: Celery stalk, grape tomatoes, one-half cucumber, kim chi, eight olives. I wanted to make a salad but didn’t want to take the time for all that chopping. This was quick and easy.

  Mid-afternoon: Chocolate milk. Really… raw chocolate milk. This is amazingly good! I put ice cubes and water to make a little over 1 cup in the blender, added about 1/8 cup almonds, and a heaping teaspoonful of Cacao Liente!, which is made from raw honey, organic raw cacao powder, cacao butter, organic cinnamon, organic vanilla, organic cayenne and Celtic sea salt.

  Dinner: Bowl of blueberries and 1/4 avocado.Evening Snack: Three dates.

  It was a long, good day. I stayed up working much later than usual to catch a business conference call at 10 PM. That was not the healthiest thing to do, but the good thing is I have the energy for it.

• Day 10, Eating Raw Foods - Raw Food Blog

• Day 11, A Healthy Diet Plan of All Raw Foods - Raw Food Blog

• Day 12, Healthy Raw Foods - Raw Food Blog

• Day 13, The Raw Food Health Challenge - Raw Food Blog

• Day 14, Raw Food Diet Challenge - Raw Food Blog

  Sunday, September 7

  Weight 120.2 pounds (I don’t know about that scale. How can it be the same, to the 10th decimal point, every day?!)

  I had my usual glass of water, followed by 1 teaspoon of BarleyMax in water. For breakfast I had one-half of a perfectly delicious cantaloupe. I sound like a broken record, but I want to keep eating cantaloupe while it’s tasting so good. Later, a plum. Lunch was a big green smoothie consisting of 2 handfuls of baby spinach, 3 kiwis, and 1 banana. For Dinner I ate leftover mixed green salad and beet/carrot/cashew mixture from Friday night's dinner. A little later, 3 dates.

  The little abdominal pain I wrote about on day 12 is gone. It lasted two days, then was just gone. I feel great.

• Day 15, The Raw Food Challenge - Raw Food Blog

• Day 16, The Raw Living Foods Challenge Continues

• Day 17, Eating All Raw and Living Foods Requires Discipline - Raw Food Blog

• Day 18, Is 5 a Day Still the Best Recommendation?

• Day 19 of My Raw Food Diet Challenge - Raw Food Blog

  Friday, September 12

  Weight: 118.2 pounds (no change).

  I started the day with a glass of water, then 1 teaspoon of BarleyMax in water. Breakfast was a banana/prune smoothie made of 2 bananas, 3 prunes, 2 teaspoons of sunflower seeds, a dash of cinnamon.

  For lunch I prepared a big salad made of four shredded vegetables—carrot, red cabbage, broccoli, and zucchini. I arranged the vegetables in individual mounds on a plate, added salad dressing—Herb Lemon Dressing from Recipes for Life: From God's Garden by Rhonda Malkmus and sprinkled with small amounts of pine nuts and raisins. Delicious and filling.

  Mid-afternoon Snack: a spoonful of yummy raw cacao/honey/almond butter spread.

  Dinner: Guacamole, seed cracker, olives, and tomato. Later, 4 dates.

  Today was a high-energy day. I felt good all day.

• Day 20, The Raw Food Diet Challenge - Raw Food Blog

  Saturday, September 13

  Weight 118.2 pounds, unchanged.

  First thing, I had a glass of water followed by BarleyMax. Breakfast was a mango/orange juice smoothie (2 cups orange juice, 1 mango)… delicious and beautiful. A small spoonful of raw chocolate/almond butter/honey spread (I was hungry before going on a hike).

  Lunch: A big salad at Earth Fare. Dinnertime (I don’t know if this is dinner or a snack): Apple with cashews. A little later I ate a very small portion of a prepared dish from Earth Fare called raw sun burger with manna bread, with a side of kim chee. The “burger” was very tasty and I’ll have the rest tomorrow.

  I felt exhausted this afternoon after returning from the hike. It was just too hot and humid—I think that was the problem.

• Day 21, Raw Food Detox Diet, Continuation of the 30-day Healthy Living Food Diet

• Day 22, The Raw Food Detox Experiment Ends Early