I spent a lovely afternoon in Shinjuku today catching up with an old Canadian friend I knew from my Miyazaki days that I hadn’t seen in, gasp, 13 years. She hadn’t changed a bit, only now comes equipped with a lovely husband and 2 beautiful boys! It tricky to move around Shinjuku station with a baby stroller; how would I know where the elevators and breast-feeding friendly places are? (Breast feeding is not a public activity in Japan.) We explored the mega Tokyo Hands store, had a huge lunch at a nice Thai place (kids food brought from elsewhere) and I ended up seeing the city through different eyes. My friends like it here, so they may just look into relocating back to Japan (the big Mikan this time).

Today I had:

green smoothie
Thai papaya salad
Thai spring salad
Starbucks soy latte
banana
green tea
zucchini pasta with 1) miso avocado sauce and 2) tomato sauce
fruit smoothie

This is actually day 105, and all I can tell you about day 104 is that I was so busy I forgot the eat for most of the day (aside from fruit) and then in a rush for an errand, suddenly became famished, broke down and ate a couple of store-bought onigiri (rice balls). Oh, and after all the deadlines were met, I cracked open a bottle of red, drank too much, got carried away auctioning on eBay, and woke up the next morning regretting my actions, so of. Another part of me is really looking forward to getting the goods I “won.” It was a lot of fun auctioning. I can see now why people might have gambling addictions. Not that eBay is gambling… really…

Today I ate:

papaya
raisins
banana ice cream and walnuts
rice balls
salad
bananas
??

I was really tempted today when my roomates’s order from Salvatore’s came in. They make, hands down, the best pizza in Tokyo. Not the cheapest, mind, but ooo la la. They even make a savory no-cheese version, but now that bread’s off limits (and it bungs me up more than ever) I will settle for just enjoying the smell. If I think of it like coffee, I’m fine; coffee smells about a million times better than it tastes. (OK, OK, the exception is espresso coffee with foamy soy milk and honey, but who makes that at home, anyway?)

I got a wee bit homesick today for the first time in years. My parents, my bother and his fiancé and daughter, and 2 dogs were heading out the door, and they called me to check in and say hi. That is hard enough as I wished I were there with them all. But then they told me they were headed to Algonquin Provincial Park. This is a park in lower Ontario where I spent at least 2 weeks of every summer as a child. Lots of memories: canoeing, portaging, marshmellow roasting on open fires, board games, exploring hiking trails, bear and raccoon encounters, first kisses… I’d really like to be going with them. Instead I am stuck here grading papers…. I hope my parents remember the bug spray. Not just mosquitoes, but them black flies sure do know how to take a chunk outa ya!

Today I had:

green smoothie
dried apricots
kiwis
green salad
oranges
lemon and water
pecans, peanuts, and pumpkin seeds
red wine

I spent most of the day doing grades for one of my university classes, but only got 1/3 through the amount that has to be done by the end of tomorrow, which will be a busy day no doubt. I did take a break to watch “Wanted,” a 2008 silly but entertaining movie with Angelina Jolie on tvshack.net. Had trouble getting back to work afterward, though. I find that I like to munch on stuff all day rather than have meals when working in front of the computer. Maybe this is because eating breaks up the monotony of all the calculating, etc.

Today I had:

green smoothie
humus, cucumbers, broccoli, and tomatoes
kiwis
chestnuts
aojiru (”blue juice” - powdered greens and water)
lemon water
raisins
red wine

Today turned into a bit of a food fest; I really ate well. This is surprising, as in the past whenever I have not brought enough lunch to work (only fruit until 3pm today), I have ended up buying crap at the nearest convenience store out of hungry desperation. Umm, perhaps the soba held me over today, and that’s why I made it home in time to prepare some healthy treats.

Today I had:

green smoothie
papaya
watermelon
kiwis
(cooked) soba and wakame (left the broth)
green salad with leftover apple curry dressing
humus a broccoli
Fuzzy Navel drink (I think I may be becoming addicted to these…)
white wine

A good laugh here. The “chief” looks a lot like David Wolfe….

Today is my 100th day of living a raw food lifestyle, so it is a good time for me to reflect a bit on what’s been going on in my mind and body. I have often looked upon my blog as a chore in recent weeks, which has still managed to keep me focused on my diet. However, I don’t think I have allowed myself to exploit the therapeutic benefits of keeping a journal as much as I should have.

For instance, there have been a few interesting changes in my body and mind that I have forgotten to document, as I was so busy thinking of what I ate or what I did on a certain day. One thing I have noticed a few times just over the past few weeks is that my body seems really good at healing itself. I cut my finger rather deeply with a knife a few weeks ago, and it seems to have healed overnight, and so smoothly with no infection, as if I had had a skin draft on it. This has also been the case with PMS pimples: They have magically left as fast as they came, along with my hormone imbalance. My monthly cramps seem shorter in duration, if not less intense in pain. I mentioned earlier at the beginning of my transition to raw that the after-sleep numbness in my arms disappeared, but I don’t think I mentioned that my lower back pains have lessened too. The only issue I am dealing with now is a chronic injury in my right shoulder. I am going to physio for it regularly. I think a miniscus might be pulled…

Another thing I really can’t stress enough is that whenever I have been eating particularly high raw - full of greens and fruit, I have felt… well, rapture! I have often found myself walking to the station in the morning on my way to work, being passed by stressed out salarymen who obviously were dying (perhaps literally) to get on the right train, and I would be suddenly overcome with pure joy- just enjoying being in the moment, smelling the flowers, or feeling the rain. There is no reason I could pinpoint in retrospect for this happiness. Nothing special or new had happened in my life. I just felt good. I named by blog “raw rapture” because I thought it was cute and catchy, but in truth I vastly underestimated the degree to which it would be appropriate.

My renewed goal: I have had 100% raw days over the last 100 days, but I estimate that most have been about 80%. I don’t mind not being 100% raw, and although this is a noble goal, it is actually not the priority for me at this stage; what is more important for me is to eat MORE fresh fruits and vegetables, and cut back on foods, raw and cooked, that are calorie dense. There are two reasons for this. 1) I want and still need to lose a great deal of weight. I have lost weight, and it is still coming off, but not at an optimal pace for me. I’d like to be back to a certain former self by the end of the year. 2) As I said, I feel so darned good when I eat mostly fruit and greens! I obviously still crave richer food items that literally and metaphorically weigh me down.

My other goal is to start exercising on a regular basis. Since June I have pretty much done nothing. True, I often walk 90 minutes a day for work (It’s almost 20 minutes just to my stations), but I know I need to get my heart rate up on a regular basis. I was doing really well at the beginning of the year, but that is of course when I was not working. I’m sure getting a simple program in place is going to have a big effect on my health!

Today I ate:

green smoothie (not sweet enough today)
Asian slaw
kiwis
raisins
green salad with raw curry dressing (apples, curry powder, olive oil, garlic and ginger)
Fuzzy Navel (blended oranges, dates, pecans, water, vanilla)

In this video from a few years ago has Tonya Kay (with with Courtney Taylor) revealing how to transition to a healthy raw food diet with ease. Tonya’s approach is/was very similar to mine, and she has a few LOL moments in her talk:

I continued working on the last paper for my editing project as soon as I got home from work today, but my brain fried up pretty quickly. It is obvious that the student whose paper I am now editing does not have a concrete enough grasp of the English language to be writing a master’s thesis in it.  I know it’s my job to check the English, and it’s normal for an editor to have occasions where s/he cannot understand what is written, but this time it’s a little bit off the wall. It seriously has taken me 2 hours to get through just one page on two occasions so far, and there are 24 in all. My employer pays well, but the time I am putting in is beginning to neutralize the carrot. What’s worse, I don’t feel I am being much help to this student as I am making a lot of guess work on the meaning of sentences that could be completely off. I know little about de-dollarization in ZYX country! Oh well, I can only do my best.

I decided to try one of Ani Phyo’s smoothie recipes for a snack this evening, and boy, was it yummy! I would never have thought to blend pecans into a fruit drink.

Today I had:

green smoothie
papaya
green salad with tomatoes, walnutes, blasamic
Asian Slaw (with miso this time)
frozen raisins
fuzzy navel smoothie (oranges, water, dates, pecans, and vanilla right from the pod)