A Raw Journey To Wellness 12/15/09

Good Morning:

I hope where ever you are right now you are feeling great. Just thought I'd stop by and update you. On what's going on. Yea I know I updated you yesterday but it won't hurt to update you again since I wanted to share a few things with you.

First yesterday was a very good day in journey. Started out the day with a really good fruit smoothie. It was a fresh blended mixture of 1/4 Pineapple, 2 Oranges, 3 Bannanas and small piece of Ginger and about 12 ozs of water. Yielded about 44 ozs of juice. It was so good when I drank it I found myself hitting the bottom of the glass to attempt to get the residue out. (That's the kind of addiction I want)

I drank the first 32 ozs in the morning and drank the last12 ozs about 2 oclock.

For lunch I had a small salad from Whole foods with a few red onions, mixed greens and 6 greek olives(probably not supposed to have them but I did and they were GOOOOOD). I bought some organic Kale, Romaine, baby spinach, celery at Whole Paycheck.

Lunch kept me satisfied until around 7:30-8pm when I got home.

Thanks to the guy I mentioned yesterday Roger Haeske I made a Raw(cold) veggie stew. (He has an entire program that teaches you different recipes on making the stew but it's a bit expensive for my blood at $97.00.) Roger maintains that the veggie stew is a great way to sustain on the diet and get rid of those cravings at night. Which is usually when I break down and start eating junk.

Another guy Kevin Gianni recommends eating at least 1-2 heads of lettuce a day. That is really unfathomable to me that I could have 2 heads of lettuce but I said I will try to do at least one to start out with.

What's in the veggie stew? I have no idea because it costs $97.00. However, I figured I could attempt to make it myself. So I grabbed a head of romaine lettuce, a half yellow pepper (found out day before yesterday that the green peppers are really not that good for you as they are not ripe) two tablespoons of raw honey and a small piece of ginger, 16 ozs of water blended it really fine (made it a really soupy green mush. Then took two stalks of celery and a half tomato and put in a food processor and lightly chopped it so it was still very chunky. I mixed the chunks and the soup together in the bowl and tried it.

How did it taste? It was actually very good. I ate three bowls of it. Basically the entire mixture. I even let the wife try a tablespoon and she liked it. Thought it should be warm but nevertheless the im going to regret trying another of Jeff's horrible concoctions because he is begging me to frown on her face disappeared as soon as she begain to chew on this nasty looking chunky green mush.

I was stuffed after I ate all of that lovely green chlorophyll which is one of the best things in the world for the body. And it tasted good. It wasn't a mixture of fruit trying to hide the taste of the veggies as I usually do with the green smoothies.

It had a distinctive taste all it's own. It tasted like it was supposed to taste. Like veggies. And the chunks of celery and tomato gave me that feeling of chewing that I missed so much in the smoothies. I might be on to something here. Well let's see how it goes... The Journey continues...Have a blessed day!!!! See you next time...

A Raw Journey To Wellness 12/14/09

Hey Everyone,

I'm back! A friend yesterday told me that they missed my blog. And I thought to myself I actually missed writing and sharing it. I also thought that one of the things it did for me was created a checks and balance for me on my journey. I haven't shared since the day before Thanksgiving and boy do I have a lot to share...

1st: Many of you who are on FB know that on Thanksgiving morning I went out and ran 8 miles. I was afraid of going over to my wife's family's Thanksgiving feast and caving in. Well during my run around mile 6 I had this feeling of strength and a sort of aha moment. I said to myself I can do this and I thought I will just go out and buy some fruit and make a fruit salad and have that.

Well, I underestimated the amount of food that I would have to look at, smell, and not eat. But the funny thing is I didn't desire or crave the food at all. I ate my fruit salad, enmeshed myself in my favorite past time watching my Cowboys and it was an easy task.

2nd: I got home that night and the lactic acid started to kick in from my run. Mind you this is the farthest I've run in my life and at 244 lbs I was still carrying a bit of weight. Also, my body wasn't used to daily running. Nevertheless, I could barely make it up the stairs in my house. I sat on the couch and got extremely cold. I felt my body breaking down. I had the chills, night sweats the whole 9. The next morning I was not better. I couldn't understand what the heck was going on. I'm supposed to be healthy I couldn't be catching a cold right? I eat only raw foods and I just completed a juice fast. My body should be in optimal health.

Well you guessed it I had a cold. My body was shutting down on me. I realized though that it was a cold like I normally get it was a little different. I had the sniffles, mucous, very little coughing and I had the hot and cold. So instead of fighting it I decided to sit back and analyze what was going on. I had intense cravings for cooked food. And yes I did indulge. I had some potatoes, yams, chicken noodle soup tons of potato chips and popcorn and peanut butter and crackers. It didn't help my cold at all but it sure made me feel sedated. Oh and I also took tylenol for the fever.

Okay, fast forward a two weeks to the present about a week ago still mostly raw (I'd say 60/40) but added in a few cooked foods. Two of the people that I follow most (for information) in the Raw Food lifestyle came out and said that they were no longer 100% raw one for health reason and the other I don't know why. This confirmed it for me. This wasn't the optimal diet for my health and well being. Otherwise why would I get sick right? So I was just going to eat a relatively healthy diet with some cooked foods and just continue to eat a lot of fruits and veggies.

Well, I was feeling awful, body puffy and started gaining water weight again. But had a feeling of not being able to go back 100% or at least 90%. In fact, for the first time in months I was all of a sudden craving meats. I thought this is not good at all.

Last week, I came across a guy by the name of Brendan Brazier. He's a raw food guy that does the triathalons, ultra marathons etc... And I bought his book. Thrive. And I started reading. In the first chapter, he talks about the effects of various types of stress on the body. Physical, mental, emotional etc... Stress causes the body to be over acidic, and the body MUST remain in a slightly alkaline state and will do whatever it takes to get back to where it's supposed to be. I had another aha moment. And realized that I did this to myself by overdoing it with the running. My body shut down so it could repair itself. Then when i added cooked foods while my body was trying to repair it further exasperated the problem.

What I found is that the harder the body has to work to digest foods the more stress. And now me being a food addict. (I'm to food what Whitney was to Crack I honestly think food is equally addictive) "Food is Whack" LOL.

I also discovered a guy by the name of Roger Haeske from NJ and a Rutgers Grad same year(imagine that). He has given me some pretty good ideas on how to better sustain on the 100% Raw Food Diet. I will share with you on future posts...

Anyway, I'm now back to "normal". And back on the Raw Food diet again fighting cravings almost like starting over. But I'm determined to fight and keep at it. I like how I feel, I like how I look, I like how I think while I'm eating the good life giving foods.

So, if you've read thus far that means you are still with me. Stay tuned because the battle is on!!! Love you all and see you next time!!! Jeff