Sixty days into the raw

I promised an update of my raw journey which I started in mid-Jan, so here it is. I’ve been mostly raw for sixty days now and I’ve to say, I’m sold. I’ve never felt so good nor looked better in a very long time.

During my first forays into the raw food diet, I just told myself, “I’ll just eat one raw meal a day.” But that proved too easy so I went up to two and then all my snacks were raw. I’m still half-raw at dinner where I will have a cooked portion of grilled fish or a vegetable soup or curry. I was a very heavy meat-eater before so I still struggle with forgoing meat altogether. I’m not sure if I want to, but it’s something to put on the back burner for now.

Okay, I’ll give you a breakdown of my experience…

Mind

I was a caffeine head and proud of my coffee habit. I couldn’t imagine anyone not needing a cup in the morning. But alas, it caught up with me: I had sleepless nights that made me grouchy, emotional, and unproductive; so this was very easy to let go. Once I did, my level of mental clarity and alertness jumped up. These days, I feel like I’ve got laser vision or something — everything looks brighter and sharper, and I can focus 100% on any task I’m doing. I’m finding it easier to approach the more difficult aspects of my workload and time zooms past when I do.

Body

This could be a bit too soon to talk about but there have been some improvements. For one, I lost almost 4 kg (9 lbs) in one month. My weight remained the same in the second month but I plan to lose more.

My skin broke out in the first month due to the detox effect of going raw, but after that, my face and body have been pretty clear except for the rare tiny pimple that will disappear within a day. I’ve also had a few compliments about how radiant I’ve been looking lately.

I caught the flu in Hokkaido but I think it had a lot to do with the excruciatingly dry furnace heater at our lodge. My throat was parched and it turned into a full-blown flu affair, which my friends caught, too. I recovered within a couple of days but I had a nagging, chesty cough. I drank lots of green smoothies and green juice for a week, and now I’m completely well.

When I work out, I feel extremely strong — I can endure lots of resistance-type exercises (push-ups, sit-ups, stomach crunches) and jog 9km without feeling I put in too much effort (maybe I should increase the intensity of my workouts?).

Soul

Although I expected to experience mental clarity, what I didn’t expect was how I was affected emotionally. The first two weeks were very moody — I would be happy for a day, but angry the next. I learned that eating chocolate and junk food doesn’t solve my emotional issues, but raw food itself doesn’t either. But what the energy of raw food gave my mind was it made me face them head on and work on finding a solution or resolution.

On my previous lifestyle, I was very lethargic physically, and that meant I was also lazy to tackle other aspects of my life. I did a lot of thinking during the first month of being raw and made some decisions regarding how I will move forward this year and beyond.

With so much positivity flowing through my blood, I cannot help but soak up the optimism it brings. I feel like if I put my mind to anything, I could do it. It sounds kind of cheesy but these are my true feelings. How can I put it? Raw food makes me feel very present in the moment, but yet, it gives me a life force to shoot into the kind of future I want. I feel like I’m in control of my life for the first time ever.

Alright, let’s get onto the fluffier stuff. Here is a pretty long pictorial list of meals I’ve been eating. I won’t clutter up this long post with descriptions, so if you click on the pictures, you can read my notes in Flickr.

Breakfast

Fruit bowl