This whole experiment has been fascinating and not a little challenging. I've been vegan for several years, and I was definitely interested to see how upping my game to being raw would effect my body's functioning. Not just any raw- a high fruit-carb, low protein and fat diet to a balance of 80/10/10. In addition to this, I eschewed caffeine and alcohol for the entire month. (Alcohol=easy, caffeine=trying)
PLAYING BY NUMBERS.
I didn't actually hit those target numbers at any time, but I did dance closely around them for most of the month. I noticed that my fat intake was slightly higher around the times of my period- I, like so many other people, comfort eat. In this case, the diet is so restrictive that 1 coconut-nut cookie AND some avocado or raw chocolate would push my numbers out of whack, which is essentially what happened on those days.
The larger reason for this is that I simply can't do it. Do what, you ask? Well, I just can't eat the volume of food required to get the most out of an 80/10/10 food program. I am full after a morning smoothie of 300-400 calories. There's just no physical way I can put 2500+ calories of fruit into my body in a day, not without eating something every 15-20 minutes. For most of this diet I've been getting hungry ever 60-90 minutes, and that *still* feels like I'm spending all my time eating. Having to constantly stop what I'm doing to cram food into my mouth seems like sort of a fun problem to have, but when I'm actively trying to get things done around the house or at work, or I'm out and about, it's a real chore to always plan for this and to bring food with me everywhere. I can see that people would get used to this, but I prefer my food to be a little more efficient. As a vegan, I already have to eat more often as I don't have a long-term storage of meat in my intestine and all my food digests very quickly. Having this problem intensified is pretty intimidating to my lifestyle- such as working and sleeping.
Because of this, I've have had to add some protein supplements to my smoothies as otherwise, to follow the percentages, my protein intake has been way too low. (often 5-8%)
A more common raw diet seems to rely quite heavily on nuts and fat, often getting 60-70% of their total foods from fats. I guess you'll stay full longer with that in your system, but again while delicious and rich and certainly raw, high-fat foods (even healthy fats!) is not what I'm going for. Too much fat always upsets my stomach and I'm interested in keeping my weight at a certain point which pleases me visually the most. Speaking of which-
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.
I lost quite a bit of weight on this diet and my body seems to have rearranged itself a fair bit. I went from 174.8lbs. to 164lbs. in 30 days, without ever feeling like I was deliberately starving myself-often quite the opposite! I think this helps, as at no time would my body have to go into the 'starvation' mode and start hoarding food. There is some thought that eating high-glycemic foods such as dried plums, figs and a large volume of bananas is detrimental to weight loss, as they give your body long bursts of fruit energy to burn instead of fat. Despite this, Johnny and I both lost significant amounts of weight.
GETTING PHYSICAL.
My torso and upper arms, specifically, are quite noticeably thinner, as is the top of my hips and my mid-abdomen. On the first (most bloated) day of my period, I was wearing jeans I haven't been able to comfortably fit into for 4 months, and a shirt I was a little self-conscious wearing on a 'skinny' day a month ago. SUCCESS. I'm guessing because of this, and also because I've started working out (although not as often as I'd like, again due to lack of energy) my muscle tone is starting to really stand out again.
There were several periods during the month that my upper and mid abdomen were quite fit, the muscles standing out well and especially my mid-abdomen was almost caved in, but my lower abdomen was quite bloated feeling and looking. I think this was in the main part, my bod getting used to the difference in foods. I went through several periods of being, *cough* backed up, which could easily account for the bloating. I combated this through increasing my water intake, and eating some dried apricots, prunes and figs on an almost-daily basis. Also, blueberries and acai berry can be very helpful to get things moving right along. Thanks, nature!
I have gotten several cuts on my fingers due to the renovations etc. and it seems to me that they are healing faster than before. I just got a tattoo, and I'm really familiar with the healing time of my body for tattoos, so that will be a good judge of healing factors.
I've become more aware of the muscles in my body, I can really feel them move around when I walk, work out and such. I hope this isn't because I'm burning muscle because I'm not getting as much protein as I used to.
I've also had a lot of people remark that my skin looks great, which is a nice side effect.
ENERGY LEVELS, MIND GAMES.
My energy has been unequivocally lower this month. Again, I'm simply not able to physically eat enough to sustain the mostly-fruit diet. Also, a major part of this is the lack of caffeine. Even after 30 days I still feel it's lack both physically and mentally. I will definitely be re-incorporating it back into my diet poste-haste. There were several points where I had a high peak of energy as is described as one of the side effects of this diet, and experienced a few hours of increased energy and mild euphoria. Those were nice. I also got quite 'high' several times after eating a particularly good meal. Body buzzing, light headed and rushing. Pretty neat. I regularly get a body buzz after my morning smoothies. Still no substitute for caffeine. It's a buzz that I could easily get used to, though. I can literally feel my body absorbing the delicious nutritious fruit and veggies and putting them to good use.
My mental focus has been more scattered too, obviously due to the lack of caffeine. However, my problem solving and acuity has gone *up*, I've been regularly testing myself with crosswords, Scrabble and sudoku and my proficiency (especially in sudoku) has gone way up. I can feel my brain working in different ways, which is pretty interesting.
I've also felt more-goal oriented and been able to more easily make myself get up and work to meet those goals this month. We've done more around the house in the past week than in the past 4 months, which I hope continues. We made a huge to-do list with deadlines, and we're steadily crossing things off our list. Feels good. I've also started being more creative and artistic again, and doing lots of sewing which is nice.
TAKING IT HOME.
There are a lot of things I'm going to keep about this challenge.
1) Keeping on eating way more raw fruits and vegetables. Now that we've established a routine with the local greengrocer, even in winter produce is easily affordable in bulk. No excuses!
2) Drying out. Not the lack of booze, but the lack of water! I'd forgotten how much I love my dehydrator. In fact, I'm looking at levelling up and buying a bigger and better one, with more drying sheets and a compact square body, rather than the round dehydrator I'm currently using which is an inconvenient shape to tuck into a corner of the countertop. Flax crisps, kale chips, dried fruit and the dried mushroom meat (rather than a store bought veggie ground round) are all going to stay as regular stars in my everyday diet. Especially since the cost of the store-bought version of any of these things is quite prohibitive!
3) Juices and smoothies. I've gotten totally hooked on fresh juice; store-bought juice tastes terrible in comparison. I really like starting my day with a big fat smoothie, and I will likely carry on with this a lot- even having the option for a hot breakfast is nice, but smoothies are awesome.
I can see myself eating a lot more raw food options. I'm hesitant to leap into defining myself as anything more than vegan, though. I like raw food a LOT but keeping my options open are a priority for me. However, much like making the leap to being vegan once you figure out meals and shopping lists and cooking methods, it's becomes pretty much routine food-making for you. It's the learning curve that can be intimidating, but with practise it's actually really easy.
This cleanse has been a great challenge and a super way to start of 2013 properly! I remain a dedicated vegan and I will keep up this blog with both raw and cooked super healthy vegan dishes and meals that I make. I have grown to love cooking a lot, and I enjoy sharing what I make and do.
I hope you all keep reading and enjoying sharing my food adventures with me!
