It’s week two and I still firmly believe the key to success is the preparation of food. I have several examples to prove my theory. One super example is that of my best friend Christina; already an avid vegan gal, she decided to take the challenge and join us for the 90 days of raw vegan-ness. Now, Christina is an amazing chef, loves to prepare and cook foods, but during these first few weeks she has been feeling hungry more and more everyday. Meanwhile, I’m eating ten small raw meals a day and not feeling an ounce of hunger. The huge difference between us is that I spent all Sunday with my guy friend preparing food for the week ahead, while she is relying on preparing stuff on-the-fly. Not only is she frustrated, but she is hungry and on the verge of cheating on the diet.
Hour by hour, this is an entire days worth of food.
A second example of this theory would be cravings and having your combatting foods ready so you don’t turn into a potential contestant on The Biggest Loser. Naturally, avoiding a design job at work, I was wandering around my office building and stumbled upon coworkers who had ordered Domino’s yumminess — cheesy bread, buffalo wings, the works. I don’t know how Domino’s does it, but they have found a way to make their cardboard crust smell like heaven (food scent scientists?). For a brief moment, the thought of cheesy bread hitting my tongue and melting into fatty goodness was extremely tempting. Quickly, I reminded myself about the diet and ran to my mini fridge. Ahhh yes, a freshly prepared raw pumpkin pie made that Sunday. Had it not been for that pumpkin pie, I probably would have gone down loser lane and taken a regretful bite into the cheesy bread crap snack.
Raw pumpkin pie, saved me from breaking down.
Ok, I could bore you with another reason why I think preparation of the food is the key to success, but instead I’ll go into some of the benefits you see from all this hard work. First off, the food gets better and better every week. If you do happen to have picked up Raw Food Real World, begin experimenting with the recipes. Kick it up a notch and add some of your favorite spices or herbs. Secondly, your sense of smell and taste are heightened (which can be a bad thing when eating raw broccoli if you know what I mean, SBD’s galore). Another plus is, you will see a dramatical drop in weight. Even in just two weeks I lost 9 pounds and an inch off my waistline. To end a running list, both Cameron (partner in crime for this diet) and I saw a difference in our focus and clarity of mind.
Shucking the corn to create tortillas. One starts to appreciate their food more and wastes less when making it from scratch.
On to the rough and tough parts. Detoxing is a huge part of this diet. Plan on taking at least two trips to the good old porcelain pot to drop the kids off. Many times our intestines, especially when eating a heavy amount of processed foods and meats have impacted fecal matter that is backed up and all of these new raw materials going in are helping it evacuate! (This is all good, but not always pleasant.) A second toughie is the time it takes to prepare food on your day of prep and during the week day mornings. Even with all your items stored in Martha Stewart-like well-organized containers it takes a solid 30 minutes to pack your meals for the day. And with that comes washing dishes when you return to start the cycle all over again the next day. All of this time-consuming stuff might be a bit discouraging for some as you sacrifice your social life for preparation and clean up, but in the long run you will appreciate your food more.
In the beginning of the week it takes a solid 30 mins to pack the day’s food. Towards the end of the week we get it done a bit faster.
The week in dishes. Yes, this gets cleaned every week.
As I go on with this food challenge, the one thing that makes me smile and helps is communicating my experience with people. Coworkers ask me daily how the diet is going and sharing with them only helps reinforce and program my behavior. Outside observers of my diet, at least for me, fulfill an inborn feeling of satisfaction that I am accomplishing something extremely difficult that humbles others with the thought of trying it for themselves. We are a people that base everything on storytelling and this story still has 83 days left until completion.
