I had such a hectic day today that there was hardly time to eat, and of course by the time I got home after munching at intervals whenever I could between classes, I pigged out! But in a good way, as I kept mostly raw. It was hot today as well as hectic, and I am not yet used to all the energy required to teach all day. That said, despite getting up before 6am and running around all day, I wasn’t lacking in vigor. 

Today I had:

salad with avocados, tomatoes, yellow peppers, cucumbers, greens and oil&vinegar dressing
sunflower seeds
cranberry juice
miso tofu “steak”
kimichi-natto
3 kiwis
1 mango

I am really looking forward to seeing this film. Produced by James Colquhoun, Food Matters is a feature-length documentary film informing viewers on how they can make the best choices for ultimate health. It includes interviews with leading nutritionists,naturopaths, scientists, M.D.’s etc.

“Food Matters” official trailer:

“Food Matters” producer James Colquhoun interviewed on Talk Show

Woke up this morning at 6am, ate some fruit, and headed out into the cold (still some snow in mid-April here!) and out towards the rotenburo (outdoor baths) for a morning soak before breakie. What a great way to start the day! Breakfast was very vegan-friendly, and some raw stuff was included. After a very stressfull day of bathing and sleeping in the passenger seat on the way home, I’m finding it hard to prepare for work tomorrow!

Today I had:

assorted fruit (pineapple, kiwis, mangoes, apples, strawberries- munched on all day)
miso soup with tofu and seaweed
two pouches of homemade natto (fermented soybeans)
assorted seaweed
pickles and assorted veggies
mixed berrie smoothie with molassis to sweeten.

Today I headed out for a two-day trip to Takaragawa Onsen in Minakawa, Gunma Prefecture with a great friend who thankfully had a car. Food before we arrived was spot on raw and lovely, but even though the resort so kindly allowed for my finicky food requirements, translation was slightly lost and the veggies were cooked for the most part, which of course I ate. And wow, what a meal! No regrets there, I’m afraid. My travel companion, meanwhile, dared to try their local specialty, bear soup (No kidding. And they audaciously keep a couple of little black bears in cages too. Aside from the bear issue, everything else rocked.)

By the time the day was through, I’d royally feasted:

a strawberry smoothy (berries, honey, water)
avocado and tomato and greens with balsamic and olive oil
a mango
1/3 small pineapple
1/4 small melon
Japanese pickles and salad
assorted grilled veggies, beans, and other local veggie delights
yuba soup with mushrooms (delish!)
red wine

The onsen was fantastic, of course -reputed as one of Japan’s top onsen resorts. I was surprised at all the foreign visitors, who comprised half the guests on Sunday night. Could be due to the fact that they have an English site: http://www.takaragawa.com/english.html

Today was a face-food-in-public test day - Aoyama Daigaku, one of my kind employers, had a Saturday morning orientation for the spring term, which included delicious catering for lunch by a lovely fellow Canadian I happened to know from a women’s group in Tokyo. Snacks too. It was easy to pass on the bread and muffins, but then some veggie stuff came out, and yes, it was then that I promptly failed the test. But not by much though. I picked the grilled (un-raw veggies) out from the sandwiches. Yum!!! Stuck it out for the rest of the day though.

I ate:

3 bananas
1 tomato
1 avocado
2 kiwis
2 classes of OJ (yeah, I know, not raw…)
sunflower seeds
curried carrots and raisins
grilled tomatoes
kimchi (spicy Korean fermented cabbage)
natto (Japanese fermented soybeans)

Work today was hectic but I got a lot done and had plenty of energy, though around 4pm I was really to eat, and in retrospect should have brought more food.

Again, I am so pleased with how my digestion is!

Today I had:

2 bananas
a cup of blueberries
avocados, tomatoes with olive oil and balsamic
huge salad with peppers and olives
a cup of almonds and sunflower seeds
1 glass juice

Found a great TED.org video! In this fiery and funny talk, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman weighs in on what’s wrong with the way we eat now (too much meat, too few plants; too much fast food, too little home cooking), and why it’s putting the entire planet at risk:

Woke up ravenous this morning and quickly devoured the huge melon slice I picked up at Belc. (US-sized grocery store down the street) It wasn’t as sweet as I thought it should be. I’ve always loved the flavour of melons, but oddly never melons themselves, unless they are fresh, sweet, Japanese watermelons. These rock my world. I can’t wait until they are in season!

Had some hunger today, even though I really felt like I stuffed my face. Obviously there are not a lot of calories in fruits and greens. As I need to loose quite a bit of weight and want to detox, this is fine for now. Later I’m going to have to find ways to ingest more calories from proteins and fats, though.

Today I had:

1 huge slice green melon
2 bananas
1 mango
8 strawberries
2 big classes of apple juice and mixed berry juice
huge mixed garden salad with oil, vinegar, and walnuts, lemon, avocados, tomatoes)
2 cup of raw greens- nibblies

OK. This is it. I only have a handful of strawberries in the fridge, so I’m off to Costco to buy that huge container of mangoes I was eying a couple of weeks ago. I’m not back at work for two more days, so I have some adjustment time. I also have apple and orange juice left in the fridge. Technically, all store-bought juice has been pasteurized, and therefore is not raw. Pasteurized equals heated equals not raw, really, even if it’s all organic, no preservatives, and flash pasteurized. But I’m neither going to chuck the juice nor become a hardcore juicer just yet. I need to keep this simple or I won’t stick to it. I’ll just eat more and drink less fruit in the future.

I also have plenty of dried fruit with no sugar added (tastes ghastly when they add refined sugar to dried mangoes in particular) but finding nuts and seeds that have not been oiled or salted is a big challenge in Japan, and if I did find them they’d no doubt cost a fortune, especially compared with Costco. (located within cycling distance for me- I am so grateful! Though I’d be all the more grateful if there were fresh produce markets around…) I’ve always enjoyed roasting my nuts in a pan and sprinkling them over salads, but that’s a no-no now. I know the right thing to do, after getting nuts and seeds raw to begin with, is to soak them so they digest better. Umm, if you’re making nut or seed cheese, that’s one thing, but I don’t care for soggy nuts! Well, since my goal is to stay on the fruitarian side of raw foodism, I’ll stop pontificating.

(several hours later). It’s near the end of my day, and I have already a positive to report: very nice digestion! Already a negative too: slight headache. Umm, headaches can also be a sign of detoxification. I’ll eat some more strawberries….

The day is done, and today I ate:

2 bananas
10 strawberries
a class of “breakfast juice blend”
a handful of mixed nuts
a handful of green peas in their pods
1 avocado & 1 tomato with olive oil and balsamic vinegar