So, I got all these gorgeous seeds online and decided to grow some sprouts. I did everything as directed and had beautiful budded beauties by day 5, as expected. I sprinkled a few teaspoons on a salad and quaffed down a very tasty lunch. Then, an hour later, it hit and it hit hard - fever, sweats, intense stomach pains, and liquid coming out of all orifices. Only lasted as long as my body needed to get rid of the sprouts. This was about 3 weeks ago, and the experience actually did not put me off sprouts. I figured I’d let in some bacteria somehow into the mix.
Last week, however, I was thrilled to find that my grocer sold sprouted chickpeas. Armed with a raw humus recipe with sprouted chickpeas, I whipped up a batch. It was not only terrible-tasting, but I got a terrible feeling in my tummy once more. These sprouts were fresh, and my roommate not only found the hummus palatable, but didn’t experience any discomfort whatsoever.
This is leading me to believe that the problem is perhaps not with the sprouts, but with me. When I think about the past, it makes sense: In 1999 I ate some mung bean sprouts that were indeed not good. I got sick, but not just the 24-hour food poisoning type of sick. I was actually unwell for a year. It was at the end of that year that a friend recommend I fast. I did so for 2 weeks and was completely healed (yeah, that’s why I am such a big believer in fasting!). What I think is that my body has a memory, and it remembers sprouts - in a violently negative way. Does this sound outrageous? Well, I do wish it weren’t true, as I do like sprouts for the most part, and they are healthy! I really have had few good experiences with them in recent years though. (Yeah, my tummy has not been pleased with me on earlier occasions as well….)
In any case, I think I will be holding on the sprouts, thank you, in the future.
green smoothie (papaya, spinach, banana, agave, water)
green salad with mushrooms, avocados, green onions, balsamic vinegar
banana
raisens
papaya
Asian coleslaw
WINE!!!!
gin and tonics
peanuts
A brilliant move to have the whole flick accessible for free, as this is a film that we all need to see. It’s a post Al Gore wake up call, and officially opened just June 5th, in fact, but I just checked today and it already had over 190,000 viewers who have already seen it online. It made me feel proud to be vegan and raw on the one hand, but also guilty in the knowledge that there is so much more I should and shouldn’t be doing. It made me feel angry at the greed that is part of our human nature, but also optimistic in the end about our resourcefulness and unity when push comes to shove. And push has come to shove. French directors had the simply idea of narration, areal video, and beautiful world music to effectively get the message across: if we want to survive as a whole planet, we have to start looking to the sun and stop brutally savaging the earth.
Here’s the trailer, but if you’ve got 90 min., go watch the whole thing.
I had my first private lesson today coaching a lovely young man who plans to do his PhD in mathematics at McMaster University in my home country, so I was doubly pleased to take him on (his skills are fairly high, obviously, and he is motivated). I also took a great many hours preparing documents I need to supply for applications for a couple of full-time positions I’m looking at for next year. There are no positions advertised within cycling distance, unfortunately. I really am keen on neither moving house nor taking public transportation in rush hour to any employer. If I do get a new job next year, then, I may just be purchasing a car. I’ve really missed having a car actually, so this might be a good thing. I could finally go on trips and more easily shop at Costco. (Not that I am by any means far from Costco, but sometimes cycling home with all my paniers loaded feels like a major expedition!) I am doing my best to avoid worry about not finding full-time employment (the wallet is tight of late and there is no room for travel and savings, so I’d prefer not to continue this current situation for too long, though gees, it is nice not to be working so hard!). Worry is not positive energy and will do me no good. At least my health is in better shape than my wallet since starting this diet! On June 10th I have a free school health check. I am banking on my bad cholesterol levels having made a change for the better!
Today I ate:
melon
green smoothie
bananas
chestnuts
carrots, green beans with guacamole and hummus
zucchini pasta and pesto sauce
chocolate mouse (avocado, cacao powder, vanilla extract, honey)
chocolate ice cream (bananas, cacao powder, dates, walnuts)
Today was an enjoyable Saturday of food preparation using my saladacco. I made 3 dishes of spiralized zucchini and daikon, with nutty green sauce and an avocado sauce. Awesome. Raw food has become spectacularly delicious. I also finally purchased a Cuisinart food processor. I paid about 6,000 yen at Costco for the mini-prep, after seeing the same item sold for 19,000 yen at the Keio department store. Almost 25% of the price at Costco. Unbelievable price disparities to be found in Tokyo. If you shop in Omotesando, for example, you can pick up a VitaMix for 70,000 yen. That’s as much as my bloody rent! (Haven’t seen one elsewhere so I can only compare to online ordering for half the price- still a tad out of my league. I am well over budget for spending this month….)
Today I had:
melon
banana
green sauce (pine and cashew nuts, olive oil, garlic, sea salt and pepper, tomatoes, and greens blended up)
4 sliced zucchinis, a chunk of sliced daikon
avocado and soy sauce
red wine
I grazed all day on veggies and fruit, knowing that I was going to splurge tonight when 3 lovely men (playing for the other team, unfortunately) came over to visit. And splurge it was- How many bottles of Moet did we go through?! A great evening. One poor guest fell asleep on the train home and ended up on other side of town, however, but this does tend to happen in Tokyo.
I ate:
green smoothie
mangos, kiwis,
different mixed salads
banana cocoa ice cream
pistachios
fresh veggies and humus
This is the final day and final blog of my 30-day trial of my raw food diet. Here’s a summation of my experience:
The initial detox period seemed to last about one week for me, primarily including headaches, some mental fogginess, and fatigue. But it was nowhere near what I had experienced on my fasts. By the end of the first week I was feeling good pretty good all the time, until after a big day cycling when I felt the symptoms of a cold coming on, but it never manifested.
I found this trial less challenging than I had thought. Perhaps this was because I was already a vegetarian, and not having to cook freed a lot of time for me. I definitely ate way more than usual, never over ate, and always felt satiated (bar the first few days). Or maybe it was because I was not as raw as I could/should have been? (Cooked foods and processed condiments did find their way into my stomach at times!)
Overall I liked the raw food on this diet and didn’t have too much trouble with variety. I’d like to try a bigger variety of fruit, but costs in Japan are prohibitive, and I don’t mind continuing with what I’ve been eating. Bananas are definitely a staple for me, though I know I should go out of my way more to eat organic. I enjoyed the simple green smoothies made from fruit, spinach, and water. I expect to continue enjoying these smoothies for a long time to come.
The cravings for cooked or “substantial” food on this diet were strong at the beginning and strangely, on days 28 and 29. At other times cravings were surprisingly nonexistent. Maybe this was because I never allowed myself to get too hungry, and indulged in raw cacao when I felt emotionally needy.
I didn’t consume any supplements during this diet at all, except some powered wheatgrass one time. I genuinely felt healthy and didn’t feel they were necessary.
I did not weigh myself either before or after this trial- don’t own a scale- and to be honest I do not think I lost a lot of weight, but I definitely did lose some, as my tight pants are now comfortable. I notice that I have far less cellulite and much firmer skin tone. I should have restricted my fat intake more to see bigger results in this area. Restricting fat to less than 10% of calories was desirably, but it was not my goal on this trial.
During the 30 days I experienced perceived increases in energy and endurance, even though I did not train much. I did a lot of walking over the month (as usual) and noticed that I required less effort to go up stairs. I expected to experience muscle soreness after my bike ride along the Shonan coast, as my travel mate did, but I guess my body was efficient in cleaning out the lactic acid.
I would have loved to test my pH to see if my body had actually alkalized over the month- it had to have! Until my day cycling, I noticed my skin gradually getting clearer and clearer. The sunburn from cycling dried me out a bit though, and the sore on my nose still lingers, and I had some tiny skin eruptions a few days ago. I expected skin problems earlier rather than later with this diet.
Although returning to cooked food was my expectation after the 30 days, I find myself with no desire to do so. I simply feel too good to stop this diet. I’m sure that if I cut down on the fats, I’ll lose weight at a faster pace, and the rawer I become, surely the healthier I’ll feel! I am also a tad scared to go back to cooked, anyway. Every time I’ve gone back to eating after fasting I’ve felt terrible, but one does have to eat! When you are raw, you are eating, so there is no need to change. I’ve read that many people feel like crap after returning to cooked after a raw diet, so I’ll put off the decision.
I imagine I will eat raw in the future, especially when dining out and/or there are no raw choices, but for now, I’ll stick to this rawsome way of eating as much as I can. From Steve Pavlina: “Real-life growth experiments don’t often produce black and white results, but that’s no reason not to undertake them. Personal growth is a lifelong journey, not a destination.”
I plan to keep writing on this site, and writing daily logs will keep me focused on solidifying and improving my new dietary habits, and I still have the seemingly overwhelming goal of losing 25 kg. One day at a time I guess.
Today I had:
MonaVie
melon
frozen sherbert (papaya, strawberries, mangos, pineapple, wheatgrass powder, green mix powder)
chestnuts (cooked)
sliced daikon and humus (with pecans)
miso and wakame
raw peanuts
banana
red organic wine
Enjoyed another Golden Week day hanging around at home- still raining outside so haven’t really been motivated to get out. Spent the day watching movies and reading. I really should have gotten some work done in preparation for next week, but I was not so motivated.
Today I had:
melon
apple spinach smoothie
salad (avocado, tomato and greens)
sliced daikon, snow peas, raw tomato sause
banana Monavie cocoa powder smoothie
pecans and dates
red organic wine
Been researching a lot on chocolate recently. If raw chocolate really is a superfood, this is something I’d like to get into. As do many, I ador the stuff, and if I can enjoy it minus the guilt and plus help benefits, I’ll be converted. I ordered some basics, but international orders take time, I guess. Here are a few YouYube videos regarding the topic:
Shazzie talks on chocolate:
David Wolfe of “Naked Chocolate” talks on chocolate (26min., so make sure you have time!):
Today was a day struggling with computer code once more. I cannot get my theme to work well for another site I’m playing around with, and even after fixing things by trial and error I am still frustrated as I can’t understand why they work. Particularly enerving is adding on my own HTML in the Word Press editor, switching to the visual editor to do some more editing for which I know no code, then going back to HTLM only to find the code I’d painstakingly inserted not there any more. WTF??
I was feeling ravenous all day today too, and ended up eating something without checking the ingredients until after the fact. It had artificial flavorings and colorings. I was in a bad mood this evening. Any relation to what I ate, I wonder?
My glands are still swollen. I’m feeling like a need a good sleep tonight.
Today I had:
green smoothie
date, frozen banana, cocoa powder “ice cream”
avocado and spices salad with tomatoes and greens
natto
red wine
dried natto (this is the stuff that had the crap in in)
walnuts
kiwis
Today I headed to Asakusa for a day of insane Golden Week crowds at Asakusa Senso Temple with a colleague and a former student. I hadn’t been there in years, and despite all the people, I really enjoyed it. Less crowded and more enjoyable was Asakusa’s Kappa town, famous for its array of stores selling kitchen appliances, sometimes recycled or hard to find items, at very reasonable prices. I picked up an apple corer, peeler, and slicer. I had looked for them elsewhere with no success, so was very pleased to find them with no difficulty.
After all the walking, however, my feet were very sore. After refreshments at Freshness Burger (well, not for me), we bid my old student farewell, but when I tried to walk again, my foot pain was quite severe. And therein lay the perfect excuse to back down and buy a pair of workman’s boots, better known to westerners as samuri booties. You know, the ones that divide your big toe from the rest of your toes. I threw in the 2000 yen to the grateful labour clothing specialty shop owner and felt great all the way home. Of course, Haruko (my colleague) and I were too famished to endure our empty stomaches until we got home, so we stopped at my favorite Thai restaurant in Omotesando,the Kafir Lime, where they will hold the fish sauce for you. I ordered two helpings of delicious raw papaya salad. Sure, the dressing was probably laden with salt and the like, but I have no regrets- It was absolutely superb!
I noticed today that although I don’t feel sick, the glands closest to my ears are a tad hard, and my skin is not as clear as it was a few days ago. I don’t think I have caught a cold or will get sick; rather, perhaps another detox bought is in play. I’ll try to eat even better over the next few days.
Today I ate:
green smoothie (mangos, kiwis, spinach, apples)
frozen papaya, mango, strawberry smoothie
papaya salad
raw carrots and cabbage
morning glory leaved and onions
red wine
fresh apple juice, MonaVie
After a lie in that was well-deserved, I awoke with far less muscle pain that I had anticipated, but did notice that I had caught a few more rays yesterday than I’d thought. Yasu drove me to the Yokohama Costco on the way home, and a good thing too, as most produce was considerably cheaper than in the Machida branch. We reasoned that this is likely because Yokohama is a port city and there are few transportation costs. I bought as much as I thought I could eat over the next few days without having to worry about stuff going bad. And YES, I got a new blender- a 700 Watt Hamilton Beach blender that was on sale. I still want one of those blenders that have more than twice the power, but they come at 6-7 times the price. I tested it on a smoothie and it worked just fine. Stuffed a few cashew nuts into my humus and my new blender didn’t seem to feel it. Very big and high-tech looking too. Very pleased.
Today I had:
bananas
goji berries, currents, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, almonds trail mix
mango, kiwi, and spinach smoothie
carrots, broccoli, daikon, and cucumbers dipped in miso humus
organic red wine
Professor Leslie Regan of the BBC investigates health claims in this 5-part series below. Food for thought indeed.
I am writing this 2 days after the fact. Haven’t had the time to write! On Saturday I went cycling with my super tomodachi, Yasunari, and we traveled from the east side of the Miura peninsula in Yokosuka to Enoshima, just past Kamakura, and back again. It was about 65 km total, which was no worries on my road bike, but poor old Yasu cycled that last 10-15 km standing up, as his ass was so soar. This is why we wear chamois pants and ooze a lot of cream all over out asses before cycling. Now he knows. In any case, it was a great raw day full of sunshine, exercise, and sites. Despite the faster bike, I admit I myself wasn’t conditioned for a full day’s ride. Thus after having a shower upon arrival back to Yasu’s place, we opted for a nap, but it turned into a long snooze- slept 2 hours! Muscles were not sore, but got a bit too much sun. As result (2 days later), I have a burn/sore on my nose at the moment. Must remember to take sunscreen on the road…. I tried to upload some beach and coastline shots I took with my cell phone, but I guess my file size was too big, as my attempts failed. I googled the area and found some other shots that depict the scenery we saw instead.
The Miura coastline, Zushi bay, Kamakura, and Enoshima were filled with water-sport lovers, though fewer surfers than I’d thought. I felt an acute longing to windsurf after admiring the skill of some of the windsurfers I saw. I used to own one, actually, and even took a week-long course when went to the Philippines a few moons ago.
Today I ate:
kiwis
bananas
MonaVie packs
store bought vegetable juice and grape juice
avocados, tomatos, spinach, olive oil, and brown rice vinegar
red wine
Many more people were in my photos than you can see here as it was Golden Week, and a beautiful day too!
I’ll definitely be cycling this route again in the near future, me thinks!
Today I woke up to face my computer and the accompanying, gloomy realization that this blog cannot, unless I reinstall from scratch or quickly up my way to basic coding skills, ever produce characters that are not in the Latin family. That means NO JAPANESE! Not that it was ever my intention to write in Japanese, but here and there it can be helpful. I’m very bummed about this, but how could I have known otherwise? A word to the wise for self-hosters out there: DO NOT use automatic installers for you databases, WordPress of otherwise, as they make a lot of nasty assumptions on how you will use things… Now I am in the process of manually installing another blog….
Anyhow, I am trying to stay with as much fruit as possible today. I cannot use my blender yet because, well, I no longer have one. Frozen bananas whacked the crap out of my old one, or I should say, my roommate’s. Wanted to save money for a VitaMix or a BlendTec, but I can’t wait! Will be off to Costco in a few days, me thinks.
Am not sure if I’ll make it to a computer in the next few days- I am going cycling along the coast of Kanagawa with my ex boyfriend. It’s perfect weather for it and I’m really looking forward to getting out!
Looks like this child is either fond of pigs as animal friends, fond of eating pork, or simply loves to lick pig snot. The current pig swine flu that’s sweeping across the globe is transmitted from human to human, but nonetheless I don’t think I can recommend the practice you see here. Pigs, by the way, have a DNA structural makeup quite similar to that of humans. I don’t eat any meat myself, but if there is one type that I will absolutely avoid unless my survival depends on it, then it is pork. Pigs are smart animals and I understand they even make good pets, but they are also disgusting creatures in that they will eat absolutely anything, such as other animal parts. And I hate to tell you if you don’t already know, but dead animals have found their way into pig feed before, at least in the US. Such practices are now banned, but I am not sure what farmers can be trusted… I think the whole meat industry as it is may in fact be related to the animal flues we have seen over the years. It’s pretty scary to think of the possibility of a pandemic.
Today I ate:
melon
MonaVie
mangos
raisens
avocado, tomato, and ruccola salad (gees, can’t get enough of this stuff)
Daikon slices
chestnuts
natto
I’m feeling fine- nothing out of the ordinary to report. I think I’m perhaps starting to take feeling so good for granted!
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Looks like this child is either fond of pigs as animal friends, fond of eating pork, or simply loves to lick pig snot. The current pig swine flu that’s sweeping across the globe is transmitted from human to human, but nonetheless I don’t think I can recommend the practice you see here. Pigs, by the way, have a DNA structural makeup quite similar to that of humans. I don’t eat any meat myself, but if there is one type that I will absolutely avoid unless my survival depends on it, then it is pork. Pigs are smart animals and I understand they even make good pets, but they are also disgusting creatures in that they will eat absolutely anything, such as other animal parts. And I hate to tell you if you don’t already know, but dead animals have found their way into pig feed before, at least in the US. Such practices are now banned, but I am not sure what farmers can be trusted… I think the whole meat industry as it is may in fact be related to the animal flues we have seen over the years. It’s pretty scary to think of the possibility of a pandemic.