Tom’s Raw Foods Blog

Just a quick “before bedtime” post. Today makes two full months of nothing but raw food.

The initial test period is over. I’m now free to go back to cooked foods or anything else that I want to eat. I’ve kept my promise; I’ve fulfilled my commitment.

So how do I feel? Free! Free to do whatever I want to do. Free to eat whatever I want to eat?

So what am I going to do tomorrow? Here’s the answer…
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Eat all of those bananas I bought today.

Yes, that’s right; tomorrow will be two months and one day.

I’m going to admit that these last couple of days weren’t the easiest. Good friends — and all of the foods I used to love — were all over the house again these past few days. My wife even made German Spaetzle with cheese and bacon today! But if you re-read yesterday’s post, you’ll understand why I chose not to eat any.

I am going to do some re-evaluation. Food is an extremely powerful social “object”, and not eating what everybody else is eating has caused most of the tension during this experiment. I miss sitting down at a meal and eating what everybody else is eating, especially when the topic is the food you are eating. My wife has done a great job of supporting me but misses cooking (as is obvious from her work in the kitchen the past couple of days). When we go out, my wife eats while I sit and stare at her. And so forth and so on.

If I do “go back”, I think that would be the real reason — but there are SO many powerful reasons for not doing it. My body weight is down to 200.5 pounds now (it was 255.5 pounds earlier this year — I’ve now lost 50 pounds and 20% of my body weight), I’m more active, feel better, have energy to “push” myself… Heck, even some of that promised mental clarity must be coming my way because I think I’m more focused on my daily tasks.

Above all, my body is cleaning itself out, I’m less susceptible to various ailments (my two year old daughter had a nasty cold for a week or so; normally I’d follow right along, but other than blowing my nose in the morning and sneezing every once in a while, I was fine this time), and I really feel as if I’m on track to do something that’s going to help ensure that I’m in a position to stick around on this planet for a lot longer than might have been possible just a couple of months ago.

Want to congratulate me? Buy a copy of Dr. Graham’s 80/10/10 book (just follow that link). If you already own a copy and are using it, give to somebody you truly love and tell them why. Otherwise read it yourself, decide if it makes sense, find a qualified counselor, and go buy a bunch of bananas. Mine won’t last much longer!

Smacznego,
Tom

Today is Day 60! Yes, 60 days ago was my first all raw foods day ever. In fact, I’ve already forgotten the last cooked food I ate (but I could go back and look for it; it’s probably on my blog).

So to celebrate, we have some friends visiting us from Poland. Of course, they called first and asked my wife if she wanted anything from Poland. As a result, our house is now filled with all kinds of Polish food specialties: cheese, kielbasa…

They have a special way of making the stuff in Poland. Nobody else can duplicate it. Once you’ve opened a refrigerator filled with Polish food, you’ll never forget the smell — and will recognize it instantly should you encounter it in the future.

Of course, I used to love those foods!

What a nice way to observe Day 60, eh?

But I’m on a mission: A mission to reclaim my health and vitality. I choose to focus on that instead of on what I’ve left behind. I suspect that I’ll continue to encounter situations where a “little bit of the old food” may tempt me — perhaps the temptation will never leave. That’s OK; when I encounter these situations, I simply think about where I’m going instead of where I was. The situation will soon pass, all will be well, and perhaps after successfully passing through many of these situations, they will no longer be an issue.

Someday soon I’m going to talk about exercise. I’m doing a few push ups every day and need to expand on that. I did try a bit of running today (just a couple hundred meters) but my legs felt like they were made of lead. I don’t think I’m quite ready for that just yet. On the other hand, the feeling I had today while running is the same feeling I had a few months ago when I’d try to walk a lot. Walking is quite easy now, so I’m sure the running will come in due time.

Stay focused; keep your eye on the goal. Forget about where you’ve been; pay it no mind. Instead, keep on working hard to achieve your goals and take care of yourself.

Smacznego,
Tom

I briefly mentioned planning as an important element of a raw food diet in my last blog post. I’d like to expand upon that just a bit in this blog post.

First, when I go to work, I’m there for quite some time. I work twelve hour shifts at a pop (and almost left out the “f” — a Freudian Slip? ). To make it even more challenging, it’s a night shift — and I work at a U.S. military base in Germany.

German stores close at 8:00 PM (and are closed all day on Sundays and holidays), and the only store on the American base that’s open all night doesn’t sell anything raw and fresh. So if I want to eat during my shift (and trust me, I do), it requires planning.

Thankfully, I realized this from Day 1 and have made the adjustments. I have a huge insulated bag with a small ice pack that goes with me to work. It holds a smoothie (in a glass jar; I found that the plastic ones sometimes left an after taste), several bananas, and some apples and oranges in the large compartment. The top compartment, which is smaller, holds my salad vegetables and a one pint (half liter) plastic box, which almost always holds grapes. I’ll throw a couple of nuts in the front pouch, along with a fork and a spoon, and I’m good to go for the shift (and usually end up hauling some back home with me).

I’ll use the same bag for shopping excursions but make a few changes. Since I eat the salad late at night and we shop during the morning, I don’t need to use that top compartment. It has a zipper to contract it so that it doesn’t flop around. I also have a .75 liter / quart bottle that I reclaimed from the recycling pile (it once held juice) that I use for smoothies on those shorter trips. Throw in a few bananas and a couple of grapes (my little girl LOVES grapes and always helps me eat them) and we’re good to go.

I’ve also come to realize that there are certain foods that simply must be kept in the house at all times. Here’s my “essentials” list:

• Bananas
• Apples
• Pears
• Grapes
• Oranges
• Clementines
• Kiwis (usually)
• Lemons (my wife also uses them for tea; I use the juick to season other stuff)
• Lettuce (I buy different types)
• Celery
• Bell Peppers (Red / Orange / Yellow; I don’t care all that much for the green ones)
• Mushrooms
• Tomatoes
• Cucumbers (I prefer the long European ones)
• Nuts (walnuts and/or pecans)

I’ll occasionally buy something that looks good (like a pineapple, mango, strawberries and raspberries — which will soon be in season — or avocado), but the above list is what I consider my bare essentials. Those items must be in the house at all times. Other times things just tend to “show up”, and if I like them and can use them, I’ll eat them. For example, my wife made a rhubarb cake for her and her friends the other day and she chopped off a few chunks and put it into one of my smoothies before I could stop her. It actually tasted fairly good!

Some items tend to go bad after a day or three (like grapes), so I buy them almost daily. I also end up buying bananas daily but will try to keep at least two days worth in the kitchen because they tend to be green when you buy them and need a day or two to ripen. Other items keep well in the refrigerator but not at room temperature, so I’ll buy as many as my small refrigerator will hold, then put them out in the fruit bowl a day or so before I’m going to eat them.

Refrigerator space is an issue. We only have a small refrigerator in our house (at least compared to what we were used to in the States), so we have to plan our use carefully. But it simply “is”, so we live with it and make the best of it.

I’ll also buy some “flash frozen” fruit, as I’ve mentioned on this blog in the past. We now let it thaw completely before eating it because it’s simply too cold otherwise and bothers us. Other than a bit of snacking, almost all of that fruit ends up in smoothies.

So I guess I do plan a bit more than I thought I did. It’s nothing all that special, and to be honest, it all came kind of naturally, without much conscious thought. But I offer what I do here in hopes that it might give you some ideas for your own planning efforts.

I have officially decided that I do *NOT* like green smoothies (you know, the ones with vegetables in them). Perhaps it’s because I didn’t try one until now but started making all fruit smoothies over a month ago? At any rate, I’ll continue to eat my vegetables “a la carte” and stick to only fruits in my smoothies.

We celebrated another birthday today in our house. This time I didn’t touch the cake, although my five year old son noticed this and asked me why I didn’t eat any. He seemed to accept my answer and is starting to realize that “Daddy eats differently” than the rest of the family. I think he’s doing quite well with understanding a complex concept.

Smacznego,
Tom