Huge Problems at Work - Day 4

My Marinated Veggies with Spinach

Tuesday 22nd July 2008

I woke up as usual but I felt really down. I was not feeling like being a raw foodie. I did my usual routine of bathroom and feed birds and put on kettle. I found that squirrels were eating the peanuts so had to run outside and chase them away. A woodpecker came down happy to eat the peanuts.

I made another bowl of fruity granola and the smell of almonds was still making me feel nauseous. However I managed to get it down although it took about 30 minutes for me to chew the whole thing. I don’t eat very quickly and raw food tends to be eaten even more slowly. This should be good for my digestion, but not for getting to work early. I also had a warm rosehip herbal tea and then listened to the Shazzie interview on Rawkin Radio on the Internet. I have downloaded all of these and I am listening to them all over again. I just love the high vibe of them and the simple practical advice that Alissa Cohen gives.

I went to work taking the remains of the marinated veggy salad. I also took some of the cooked beetroot.. sorry but I don’t have any raw beetroot and I need some comfort food. I think cooked beetroot is a better than many other things I could choose to eat. Day 4 is going to be a hard day for raw. Work is very bad right with a new boss asserting himself in a very aggressive way. My old boss (still boss until September) and I have agreed my new role in the company and my new boss is ignoring this. I was advised that the old and new boss should argue this not me as I should not be seen as arguing with new boss. I just hope my current boss stands up for me as the new boss (new to company etc) is wanting to give me work which I cant do and do want to do and is ignoring the fact that it has taken me a long time to carve out my current research niche and I want to continue the work that is finally coming my way after the stuggles. There is no-one else to do this work so it all seems very strange. I find out later that it seems that the new boss is interested in doing this work himself with his own ideas. And he is telling me that I am not there to enjoy my work. Reallyl!

There was a lot of work crap and I did not get to eat until the afternoon. I dreamt of cooked comfort foods, but I had to keep telling myself that I would not let my work situation spoil my vision of being raw. I had a warm herbal tea as a compromise. Thank goodness for my rosehip tea. Right now I think herbal tea has to stay as this gets me through the day. I don’t have the option of warming water at work… we are not allowed to use appliances in the kitchen or work areas, we have to use the canteen or the coffee machine.. can you believe that. There is however a boiling water feed which we can use to make our own drinks. I did once start bringing in my own water in flasks but it was just too inconvenient to do this. I became the bag lady who brought her own drinks and food everywhere she went. It made me feel too isolated and an outcast. I was not enjoying being so different in environments where you were all supposed to be part of a team and bonding.

About 3.00pm I enjoyed the raw salad I had made and I own up to having the cooked beetroot (1 tiny beetroot) and enjoying it. I hope that my own home-grown beetroot will be ready soon so I can find a way of enjoying raw beetroot.

I went home very disillusioned with my new work situation and that is probably taking the shine off being raw. However, on the positive side I can only feel better with raw food. I may be feeling a whole lot worse with cooked food.

I took my car to the garage and then went back to work (only a short walk away from the garage) and took a hire car for my business meeting tomorrow. I wont have much time in the morning to make anything as I need to get to Yeovil, Somerset.

I got stuck in huge traffic jams on way home and had to bypass the supermarket route. I was not really in the mood for trying to think what I was going to eat. I thought about what I might have that evening and realised that I could juice my favourite, carrots, apples, celery and spinach. I did and it was fantastic. Then a friend called and I went to bed late and wide awake. Not good for getting proper sleep before my early trip tomorrow.

So what did I eat today?
7.15 am: rosehip herbal tea
7.30 am: fruity granola with almond milk
2.00 pm: herbal tea
3.00 pm: marinated veggy salad
7.30 pm: juice with carrots, apples, celery and spinach

Bye for Now
RawCarol

100 Day Raw Food Challenge: Day 1

I am starting my 100 day raw food challenge to enjoying raw food including green juices. Let me introduce myself.

Here I am with the 47 year young cooked food look relaxing at the weekend. I hope to get clearer skin and sparkling eyes and look 21 again!! :-))

I am currently 122 pounds... I have put on 14 lbs since last year so I need to get them off again.

I have a 29.5 inch waist which I want to reduce.

I planned to go raw yesterday but I had a depressing day and was too upset so I am starting today.

Day 1: Saturday 19th July 2008

This morning I was without food and still upset. I decided to just have a warm roship herbal tea and nothing else and went off to the garage to see if they could mend my car. They said it was not the exhaust but a tyre making the horrid exhaust noise. £90 later I had a new tyre ( I had new tyres last year!) I drove off from the garage to the supermarket, the noise even louder than before!!

In the supermarket I just bought everything I could find organic in the fruit and veggy section, and some non-organic kale and avocado as there were not organic versions. I had so much and it is exciting. I got home and found homes for everything… just.. and then got overwhelmed… where do I start… what do I eat…. Help. I decided to tidy up the kitchen and then reward myself with a green smoothie. I made my first one with apples… I have never blended apples before.. seems strange but I thought it would be fun to try. I put in 1 cup water, 2 bananas, 2 apples (without cores) 1 slice pineapple and 2 handfuls of spinach. I decided to put in a tiny pinch of celtic sea salt (well ½ turn of my salt mill) and a teaspoon of agave. I do have a sweet tooth and I was worried this might not be comforting enough. The first glassful turned out to be wondeful, but the second was too sweet and the third went down a bit more slowly. I don’t think I need the agave in this. But I will do this again.

One hour later I was starving and grabbed some dried sharon fruit (persimmon in the US). A sugar blast, but I wanted something to chew. I was feeling good but ½ hour later I felt very tired and had to go to the loo several times to get rid of the smoothie.

Not sure what to eat today, and I am not really feeling like the energy to make anything. I did buy some cooked beetroot as this is one of my favourite foods and I think a simple salad with some cooked beetroot might help me get over my fed up ness for all raw salads. I think transitioning to all raw will not be done today. I could not find any raw beetroot so I did succumb to the cooked version. Still I may find the will-power to eat something else.

In the afternoon I wanted bread or something to chew so I took a piece of onion bread, spread on mashed avocado and then sprinkled on some seaweed sprinkles.

½ hr later I got some stomach pains, then a bit later lots of gurling. Then I got very cold and had a small headache. 1/2 hour later I was very hungry, or was it thirsty, or was it cravings?
My stomach hurt but it could be period pains as I get them bad at end of period. Drat I have just remembered that I used to get stomach pains after having dried sharon fruit last year. It could be the same thing. But I only had a few pieces.

Then my stomach hurt really badly, I did not know what to do. I tried some water. The water helped at first but then the pain just got worse. I also had a severe headache across top of nose. I am watching some TV and resting but I could not lie on the sofa for long so I keep changing from looking at Bunny Berry blog on internet and formula 1 on TV which I had recorded.

I need to get out more but I have to confess that I am not an exercise or even an outside kind of person. I prefer to relax with TV, internet or book. I need to start to change this, but it is not going to happen overnight. I have tried in the past and fail. This challenge is to find an easy way to transistion to the raw fit and healthy woman that I can be. I don’t want to keep failing or hating it. This time I want to find joy which is why I am not going to force myself to take anything but tiny jumps. Right now stopping my craving for veggy mayo is good enough for todays challenge.

About 6.00pm I needed to start thinking of eating before I got too hungry but I did not have any thoughts about what I was motivated to make to eat. I could definitely do this diet if I had a raw chef pop by each day with a load of food for me, already made…. But I am in the UK not US so that is not a real option right now.

I had bought some kale to make Chrissy’s goddess kale chips as so I looked up the recipe on the internet and made some. I had a bag of kale, so not sure what 2 heads were so I made 1/2 the sauce bit and left out the scallions. For some strange reason I could not find my tahini so I had to use almond butter. Not sure if this is a no no, but infact I dont like tahini so this might be better for me. I used almond butter and put it in my dehydrator, the smell is disgusting so I am not sure this will work out OK.

I just can't get the energy to make anything else to eat so I just ate a few apricots. They were not organic and though a beautiful colour they were still a bit hard. I am listening to Doris Day and I think I am going to end the day with a herbal tea as I need some comfort. I am proud that I have washed up twice today and that is enough for me in one day.

Finally much too late, I decided that I wanted to to eat and ate bananas cut in half, coated in almond butter and sprinkled with goji berries and small amount of honey. Then I went off to bed after watching more television. I love to record Oprah and Cold Case during the week and then watch them when I am resting. I will start thinking about exercise once I am back in the flow of raw.

So what did I eat today?

7.30 am: warm rosehip herbal tea

1.00pm: smoothie (1 cup water, 2 bananas, 2 apples (without cores) 1 slice pineapple and 2 handfuls of spinach.with tiny pinch of celtic sea salt and a teaspoon of agave)

4.00pm: onion bread, spread on mashed avocado and then sprinkled on some seaweed sprinkles

6.30pm: apricots

7.30pm: bananas with almond butter and goji berries

Bye for Now

RawCarol

The RAW Wagon

I fell off the raw wagon big time this year. I have to admit to enjoying this time for various reasons. Just living on convenience food, not having to keep thinking of raw food shopping and chopping. Eating what others are doing. However it soon started to go wrong because I have a number of allergies/intolerances and I soon got ill and wanted to get back on raw. But my big problem.. I dont really like vegetables, hate greens and get very hungry if I eat just fruit. I also have problems digesting lots of raw food. However, my soul loves raw food. My mind is clearer and I dont get depressed. I also dont get ill.

I have tried nearly everybody's version of raw and failed with them all. I got to the point where I did not enjoy it and realised this year that I was forcing myself to eat things that my body did not want to eat just because some guru was saying I should eat this and I should not eat that. I was beating myself up over failure and I decided to have the best ever cooked food life for a while. However, whilst cooked food is good for my business lunches and working away in hotels I missed the adventure of raw food and what it might bring to my life.

Raw food is much more exciting and seems spiritual. It is supposed to make you younger, fitter and healthier... how can you resist this. And so I am chasing the wagon to try and get back on. But this time I do it my way and I am not going to force myself to eat 100% pure low fat, low sugar etc etc. I am just going to find out what I like and search for the fun in raw. I am also going to challenge myself to finding a healthy green juice that I like. Ok wagon I can see you in the distance I am running up to you and I am ready to jump back on and find my way back to the raw glow.

Meanwhile I have prepared some onion bread and some granola to help me transition to the rawdiet that MY body loves. I will become my own Raw Guru.