First up was an overall cleanse. I though being vegan and gluten free that I was eating relatively healthy but apparently not! I've always wanted to be buff - really toned and strong looking so this is the start of my journey.
Starting in at 144lbs I hope to get down to at 125-128lbs which is what I was a year ago.
I'm starting with a three day fast cleanse, just drinking water with lemon and herbal tea.
After that I will switch to eating only raw for two weeks. At least that's what I'm going to try to do.
Fasting is really great for your body because it gives it time to fix everything that's wrong and get rid of toxins - digesting takes a lot out of your body and doesn't leave it much time for anything else.
Fasting is perfectly healthy - just remember to stay hydrated!
I found this Full Body Cleanse page on Dr. Ben Kim's website very helpful.
It's no secret I love food - I love finding recipes, making it, eating it and finally blogging it so to start thinking of food as just a healthy fuel supply for my body and little more is very difficult for me but I feel like that's the mind set change that has to happen right now. Just like people have to ween themselves of cigarettes, I have to ween myself off food - the unhealthy kind anyway!
I know the first couple of days will be hard because I'm used to eating all the time (seriously my husband says he's never seen someone eat so much food LOL) but I think for me eating raw will be harder - I love hot food! At least I own (never used) a spiralizer so that's a start right?
Food processor and blender are also very handy tools for raw eating. Dehydrators are super expensive and you can get a similar result in the oven on the lowest setting.
Once my two week cleanse is over my plan is to start eating right, using an app to be accountable every day for what I put into my mouth and how much exercise I do. Also for me, portion control and eating slowly are two huge things that can radically reduce the amount of calories I'm putting into my mouth.
I love bowls, so I think I'll be making a lot of those...just have to limit my dressing on them!
This website was helpful in determining raw from not so raw foods.
Day 1
I normally wake up starving so I think for me morning was the hardest part. I drank a lot of lemon water and herbal teas. My daughter was sick and requested vegetable soup which I made but wanted to eat so badly!
I did eat a couple kernels of corn buy accident - just habit nibbling as I cook!
I started feeling head-achy and nauseous so I totally caved by the afternoon and had a spoonful of the soup and then later that night - oven fries with homemade ketchup - SO DISAPPOINTED!
Day 2
I felt very cranky today and still wanted to eat. Drinking a ton of water and herbal tea, the lemon helps the hunger cravings.
I know I ate something on this day around the afternoon because I caved again but I can't remember what :(
Day 3
Generally feeling fine. I felt great all day and not at all hungry.
I was motivated so I went shopping for raw veggies and seeds etc for when I start eating raw.
Made myself a green juice when I got home (red lettuce, baby spinach, mint, celery, carrot and orange). Could have definitely have gone all day without eating anything.
I went for an hour walk as it's normally my workout day but I didn't want to do anything to strenuous while fasting.
Ended up making some almond milk and using the left over almonds to make a vegan pate which wasn't good but when I mixed a bit of it with some broken up homemade crackers.
I feel like Day 3 was the turning point for me.
Day 4
I weighed myself on the scales this morning and I was already down to 138lb which is way better that I was hoping for.
Today I felt fine and not hungry but as it was my first day of technically eating raw (even though I totally failed the fast) I had a Garden of Life raw meal shake using my homemade almond milk (which was pretty watery honestly).
For lunch I made a salad with the old vegetables in the fridge that were needing to be eating - red lettuce, asparagus, mushrooms, cilantro and 1/2 lemon for dressing.
For a snack I had 1/2 avocado and some of the almond pate mixed together.
For dinner I had 1/2 avocado on two large homemade seed crackers.
Felt really good today.
Started the day with a Garden of Life Raw Meal smoothie using almond milk and a banana.
For snack I had 4 celery sticks topped with the almond pate I made.
For lunch I finished off the raw salad that I couldn't finish yesterday but I wasn't even hungry!
For dinner I made raw nori rolls with nori paper, avocado, carrot, cucumber, basil, cilantro, red pepper and kale. I had a homemade peanut sauce to dip.
Finding raw food sites and YouTube very helpful. Loving This Rawsome Vegan Life (not fully raw though) and Fully Raw Kristina for recipe inspiration.
Day 6
Having PMS so fighting the urge for bad food - plus it snowed all night so really want hot food. I'm having a lot of herbal tea to keep me warm :)
Had the Raw Meal smoothie for breakfast, raw nori rolls for lunch and had a zucchini pasta for dinner. Sauce pureed tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, kale, mushrooms, zucchini and basil.
I did my first epic workout (my Crossfit-ing friend put together a strength and toning set of workouts for me)
I had some seed crackers with sun dried tomatoes and a sprinkle of nutritional yeast for snack.
Day 7
Woke up with a sore throat and feeling like I was coming down with something which is not good! I have not been sick since going vegan 5 years ago and I don't intend to start now! The weather has been changing rapidly and my diet has changed dramatically in the last week so really it could just be those shocks to my body - not to mention the shock of an intense workout!
My legs hurt from my workout but other than that I feel pretty good. Raw smoothie for breakfast, zucchini pasta for lunch and collard green wraps (with walnut based filling) for dinner.
Day 8
Felt fine today except got my period so all I wanted was bad food...but abstained. Yay!
Don't feel like I'm getting sick anymore which is great! I was worried about that.
I had the raw meal shake for breakfast, collard wraps filled with the carrot filling and avocado and for dinner I had celery filled with the walnut pate.
I did have a late night snack of avocado on seed crackers....oops ;)
Day 9
Started the day with avocado on seed crackers and a green tea.
For lunch I had a portobello mushroom sandwich (the mushroom as the bread and a raw nut "curried egg salad", carrot spread and avocado).
For dinner, Montezuma's Raw Salad without dressing.
Made this delicious raw chocolate mousse for dessert too...
Day 10
Breakfast - raw smoothie, lunch - Montezuma's Raw Salad with vegan vinaigrette dressing, dinner - raw spicy mushroom burritos. Did my workout today and felt fine.
Day 11
Breakfast - raw smoothie, lunch - Montezuma's Raw Salad with vegan vinaigrette dressing, dinner - raw spicy mushroom burritos (YUM!!!)
Day 12
Actually noticed a huge difference in the mirror this morning which was very encouraging - tummy definitely had gone down and my hips had slimmed down too - yay! Breakfast - raw smoothie, lunch - Montezuma's Raw Salad with vegan vinaigrette dressing, dinner - Raw Rainbow Goji Salad - love this! Late night snack - avocado on raw carrot crisp bread.
May have had a couple of spoonfuls of Justin's Choc Hazelnut butter - whoops!
Day 13
Breakfast - raw smoothie, lunch - Raw Rainbow Goji Salad, dinner - raw tacos in lettuce leaves filled with avocado and a turnip, red pepper and tomato blend. Spoonful of Justin's Choc Hazelnut butter again - it's just so hard to resist! Made some No Bake Energy Bites which were great - had one for dessert.
Day 14
Breakfast - raw smoothie, lunch - last nights raw tacos and total cheat tonight - I'm having a homemade tomato & basil pizza with no cheese. The base is not raw because I don't have the 8 hours to dehydrate one and I'm throwing a mini pizza/ice-cream party for the kids tonight and didn't want to be totally left out! I was loving those raw balls as a snack though!
More raw recipes under the "raw" label to the right.
I lost a total of 6lbs and definitely noticed a difference to my skin and tummy although I have yet to measure.
So after two weeks I can definitely say that I would try to keep up with having a raw vegan diet as at least 50-80% of my normal diet. Not sure I could go 100% just yet but I'm certainly more motivated to have it be a part of my vegan lifestyle than I was before. The prep work takes a while but because you don't have to wait for anything to cook you can eat it straight away - so it really evens out time wise. Yay for raw!
Good luck on your journey! We seem to have the same goal, I want to be all strong and buff! I have a vegan coach and one thing I'm very mindful of is portion size (I try to keep my meals to 350g total, following a low fat high carb plan). So far it's going really well as my aim is to lose the body fat then bulk up all muscly down the track. Trouble is I'm so impatient!
ReplyDeleteAwesome! It is definitely a journey but I think the great thing about raw food eating is you don't have to calorie count or portion size unless you're literally just eating nuts LOL
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to get the calories, let alone get too many. I've not been calorie counting at all and have already lost 8lbs and it's not even been two weeks.
I've only done three workouts (albeit intense cross-fit type workouts) and I can already see a change in body, internally and externally!