RawFu Challenge - Day 28

Sunday, 06 September 2009

An interesting byproduct of a raw food diet (for me) is the clarity I’ve gained about the roll of food in our lives, and about all the things that nourish us, beyond what we put in our mouths. Though I definitely believe in the healing and health-promoting power of whole natural foods, I know that it would be futile to attempt to theorize the ideal diet, even based on scientific data. When it comes down to it, we get one life (well, in this body, anyway), and there is a whole gamut of factors that contribute to a healthy body. I probably wouldn’t have said so in my younger years, but I now believe that the mind and how we think/feel is equally important as caring for the body with respect to our health, longevity and the pursuit of happiness. That sounds simplistic, but when I was in my early 20’s and weighed 250 pounds, my only objective was weight loss. If I could just lose the weight, everything would be better; I’d be healthier, better-looking and happy. I didn’t have the wisdom back then to realize there are lots of skinny miserable people!

In the years since then, I’ve had the opportunity to experience an array of lifestyle changes and have been everywhere on the dietary scale from overweight junk food eating binge-eater and yo-yo dieter, to strict vegan and now raw food enthusiast. I’ve seen the impact the improvements in the quality of my food have made on my physical health, and even feel I probably averted a couple rather serious health issues. But, there really is only so far food can take you. I think I could probably be an overweight raw foodist without much effort. It’s individual behaviors and other lifestyle practices that complete the health spectrum, and without attention to the balance of those things, it’s easy to maintain less than optimal health on any dietary path.

That said, I’m enjoying our raw food challenge tremendously, and am looking at it as a learning experience. We are trying to do as close to 100 percent raw as possible during the challenge. Afterwards, I’d love to maintain what I hear termed a “high raw” diet. I don’t want to ever hold myself to any 100 percent standard for anything. That’s too inflexible and mentally exhausting right now.

So, just a little reflection of where I am at close to the month mark… though I’ve been at this for a few months now, actually. My major challenges still seem to be planning, and preparing separate things for the kids. This isn’t a struggle in terms of food cravings or wanting to eat what I make them, it’s just the time management of doing it all. If it weren’t for Joe’s allergies, ninety percent of the time, I would just make one raw food dish and serve it to everyone, like it or not, supplementing with additional cooked items for the kids. But, I haven’t been elevated to the level of allergen free kid-friendly raw food chef yet. I’ll keep working on it!

Dehydrator Fun for the Day: Last night I made a batch of flax crackers, mainly out of the need to use up a ton of tomatoes we have. So, I soaked a cup of golden flax seeds for a few hours, then into the VitaMix I put 1 green onion, 1 clove of garlic, 6 Roma tomatoes, 3 small maroon carrots, 1 soaked fig, 1 tsp sea salt, 1 tsp black pepper, half tsp chili powder & 2 tbsp of chia seeds. I blended that all up, then poured into a bowl, adding the soaked (and rinsed) flax seeds. I mixed it together and let sit covered in a bowl for a couple hours… it got quite a bit thicker… then spread it on two dehydrators sheets and dehydrator overnight… flipped in the morning… enjoyed with dinner…

Today’s Green Smoothies: 1 bunch of dandelion greens, 1 pear, 1 orange, & water.