February 8, 2009

A belated farewell

The final post by Larry

I apologize to my fellow rawhides for my deliquency in the ending days of the Month in the Raw. As I slid off the raw diet I found it hard to show my face around here. In closing, I thought I would address my feelings using the template already produced by my colleague.

Q: Are you happy you did this experiment?

A: Sure, I believe trying new things is the path to enlightenment even if they are challenging or painful. Failing to embrace all new things is part of that path. Ditto, for recognizing that others might come to alternative conclusions.

Q: How have you changed as a result of A Month in the Raw?

A: Very little I guess. One benefit is getting to know some coworkers better. It was a reminder to me that I have some self control, even if I am unable to apply it for the entire 4 weeks.

Q: Do you think there are real benefits to eating raw?

A: Not in the way that so many claim. Most of what you read when you Google “raw food” is magical thinking. Obviously eating a diet rich in produce is much better than the typical American diet.

Q: Will you continuing eating raw?

A: I ate raw before, I will again. I won’t follow the “Raw Diet” ever again. I discovered many foods on the raw diet that I will continue to eat. I certainly have a different relationship with the produce section now. I have eaten more honey in the last month than in the last 10 years, I will probably continue to use it more often.

Q: Would you recommend others try this experiment?

A: But of course.

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February 6, 2009

A Month in the Raw Traffic Report

Posted by Beck Tench

Traffic Patterns for A Month in the Raw

Weekly traffic patterns for A Month in the Raw

After 90 posts and 220 comments, a Month in the Raw received over nearly 4,500 visits in one month.  The traffic spiked on January 6th with 335 views in one day.  That was right before experimenters started waning on their 100% commitment: first Leiana (7 days), then Beck (9 days), then Larry (16 days), then Erin (22 days).

Facebook sent the most visits our way.  Flickr and Google Reader were other popular referrers.  The most popular post was the first post, My name is Beck and I love eggs. followed by the About page, Elizabeth’s Rules, Life as a Fruitcake and the Zucchetti recipe.

The most popular outbound links were our Livestrong dairies, the Corn Diet Blog, and the PMS color chart that a few of us used to describe the color of our urine.

Aside from the obvious I-already-know-the-blog-exists-but-I-can’t-remember-the-url searches, the following popular and/or peculiar Google searches landed folks  on this blog:

  • queasy after eating eggs
  • simple raw recipes
  • side effects from too much almond butter
  • snow whites seven dwarfs
  • eating mango makes my lips chapped
  • how to eat raw blueberries
  • can you eat dwarfs been raw
  • raw banana uterus
  • 3 different disorder of the digestive system
  • blocked salivary gland celery seed
  • avacados give farts

Over 170 tags were used to describe our posts, moods and experience in 9 categories. Seven of the comments we received were Spam.  Authors posted accordingly:

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February 1, 2009

My first cooked meal

 

Posted by Elizabeth 

first-cooked-meal

I went out to brunch with friends in DC this morning to have my first cooked meal in a month. I had an egg-whites omlette with spinach, tomatoes, broccoli, mushrooms, and feta cheese; a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice; a few baked sweet potato fries that I shared with my sister; a bowl of fresh fruit that I didn’t actually eat so took with me for a snack later. 

It was nice to be able to have a normal breakfast out at a restaurant instead of having to eat only fruit because that would have been my only other option there. The omlette was great – the feta was the key to its deliciousness. And I felt fine after eating it. I didn’t eat too much or make myself feel too full, which was good because that’s a goal of mine going forward (I tend to eat too much most of the time).

I also had a small soy chai tea latte from Starbucks this afternoon. This is my day to be un-raw and that was the only other thing I could think of that I wanted today that wasn’t raw before I return to raw.

One warm cooked meal and one latte, and now back to mostly raw for the next six weeks! 

Omlette for brunch

Omlette for brunch

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February 1, 2009

31 days down, 334 to go.

Experimonth #1, A Month in the Raw, is now over.  In the past 31 days, I’ve eaten nearly half of them 100% raw.  I’ve eaten raw when it was inconvenient, when it was totally convenient.  I’ve eaten raw when I didn’t have to, when I wanted nothing more.  I’ve changed because of the experiment.  I’ve changed because I didn’t complete it the way I intended.

Q: Are you happy you did this experiment?

A: A complicated question:

(-) There were a few times I regretted joining along when my initial response (at The Pinhook where the idea was conceived) was noncommittal.

(-) In my heart I feel like I failed because I didn’t complete the entire month being 100% raw.

(+) In my brain I feel like quitting early was a sign that I value my own sanity and happiness more than what others think of me.  That I know my limits. Those are big changes over the Beck/y of way back when.

(+) I feel closer to my co-experimenters than I did at the before 01/01/09.

(-) Before raw I had settled into an eating routine that was easily maintainable.  I feel like in some ways I’ve lost that and am reshuffling what my ideal diet is.  I don’t like that uncertainty physically or mentally.

(+) I enjoyed the social, bloggy, participatory experimentation of this month and have already learned a lot from Experimonth.

Looks like I’m even on the +/-.  I am not unhappy I did the experiment, but I don’t know if I’d do it again.

Q: How have you changed as a result of A Month in the Raw?

A: I look at the produce section of the grocery store differently, now.  Before going raw, I bought produce stingily, not trusting myself to eat a lot of fruits or vegetables before they’d go bad.  I ate sparingly because I didn’t see tastiness in raw vegetables (except for salads) and I didn’t eat much fruit, period.  Right now I feel a big green light of abundance when I’m in the produce section.  I eat a lot of fruit, I eat enormous salads, I feel entitled to eat my fruits and veggies instead of obligated.

Q: Do you think there are real benefits to eating raw?

A: I’m not sure.  I think there were real changes to my body as a result of eating 100% raw.  Digestively, things moved through at a constant and quick pace.  Energetically, I felt consistently energetic, less light headed and never lethargic as a result of eating all day (vs meals).  Metabolically, things slowed down.  Emotionally, I felt sort of obsessed and near constantly deprived.  I don’t know if things are good or bad or just different, health-wise.

Q: Will you continuing eating raw?

A: Sort of.  I have decided that rule-based eating is a bad idea. It doesn’t go along with any of the positive changes I’ve made for myself in recent years. I agree with The Other Erin on her post “Thou Shalt Not Have Shalt Nots” and I shall not abide by any sort of raw percentage or raw meal-a-day goal.  However, raw does feel light and good and I imagine that some of the simple meals I prepared while eating raw (like bananas with almond butter or large salads) will pepper my diet from now on.

Q: Would you recommend others try this experiment?

A: Nope.

–

I would like to thank Elizabeth, Erin B., Erin H., Greg, Larry, and Leiana for their thoughtfulness and efforts.  You were delightful to co-experiment with.  If I have other raw thoughts as the days, weeks, months and years go by, I’ll be sure to post them here.

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January 31, 2009

A Month is a Long Time

Posted by Erin B

I’ll say it again: a month is a long time.

Today is the day that at the beginning of the month, which feels so far away, felt so far away. It’s the day that at the beginning of the month I thought I would be celebrating with trumpets and confetti, but for reasons that I have fully disclosed and gotten off my chest, I am not. It is interesting to be here. It’s one of those things that felt like it would never happen, like Christmas or your 21st birthday, but time is faithful, and here we are. Reading over my first blog posts, I’ve definitely come away with some interesting takeaways.

For instance, my eating tomorrow will look a lot like my eating today. I’ll have a raw breakfast again and a raw lunch again and will be flexible with my dinner. I’ll avoid dairy and eggs (and of course meat). I’ll eat breakfast and lunch raw, not because I believe cooking them is evil, but because it’s simple, delicious, and a mindless way to automatically eat healthy. I’m excited about my journey into practicing moderation. I had always been in the mindset that I had no discipline and therefore was not capable of it. But this month I kind of realized that I do have discipline, and that I can develop a healthy system of moderation, and that it takes practice.

Another thing I’ve been thinking about are these eating extremes that people do (including me!) and how they are very much related to self-esteem. I know maybe 2 people who have a healthy self-image when it comes to their bodies. It is so counter-culture to have a healthy body image. Our culture drills into our heads that we always have to be unhappy with how we look, and must always be changing something. Think about endless makeup and weightloss ads. It’s everywhere. We are not allowed to love ourselves as we are–it has to be a conditional thing. I’ll love myself when I’m 10 pounds lighter. I’d be happy with how I look if I could quit soda. Which is totally ridiculous. I know I don’t do that with my friends, so it’s kind of ridiculous that I do that with myself. I realize that I had been using vegan eating, and even exercising as a condition to being happy with how I look. Vegan eating and exercising are in my mind good things, but not when they are abused like that. I should be happy with myself even when I miss a month of going to the gym and when I don’t eat vegan and when I drink a soda with dinner. I should do things I believe are good because I believe they are good and best for me, not because I feel like without them I am an incomplete person. It’s crazy if you think about it, right? You do things that are good and best for the people you love simply because you love them, and not because they need you to treat them well to be worth loving. But we do that, and I do that, to ourselves, to myself. It’s this eternal damn balance of being forgiving of yourself, yet pushing yourself to try to ever improve. Not ever improve because you are not good enough as you are, but improve because you could always be better. There’s a huge difference between those things. Like, crazy huge. I’m working on it, and it’s really hard.

Thanks, raw diet. Even though I was not faithful and loyal to you like I would have liked to have been, I still enjoyed this experience and value the things I’ve learned. Thanks to all who followed, encouraged, recipe/seaweed shared, and showed interest in our endeavor. Catch me an’ Beck on the 28 Tables blog starting tomorrow!

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January 31, 2009

The end is here

Posted by Elizabeth

This is the last day of the Month in the Raw, so I wanted to sign off with some of my thoughts about how things went this month and my plans for going forward. I have actually really liked eating only raw foods this month. It has helped me feel healthier and more energetic than I have in a while.

Health observations:

  • I have lost 12 pounds this month. My weight has leveled off for the past few days though.
  • My body temperature has dropped to about 97 degrees.
  • My right thumbnail seems to be permanently yellowed now due to peeling so many clementines. :-)
  • No other notable changes in blood pressure, blood sugar, etc.

Things I will continue:

  • My plan is to still eat raw a vast majority of the time for the next six weeks – with only making a couple of exceptions here and there, mainly in times when it isn’t as socially acceptable or convenient to eat raw. My apartment lease is up in the middle of March and then I am going to move in with my parents in Cary for a while, to help me save money. So I will eat raw until then. Once I move in with my parents, I will suspend the raw diet and resume eating a normal, healthy, well-balanced vegan diet (perhaps with eggs or fish occasionally), with an “everything in moderation” philosophy.
  • Even once I’m done with raw, I plan to eat mainly only whole, natural, fresh fruits and vegetables. “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” will be my mantra from now on. I feel really healthy right now, so I want to continue on with this mindset of liking and wanting to only put good-for-me things into my body.
  • I will continue tracking my meals and exercise on The Daily Plate.

Things I will change:

  • I haven’t had any gum or medicine or vitamins at all this month. I plan to start chewing gum again. I will take medicine for headaches, etc. if I really feel like I need to, but I haven’t even felt the need to at all this whole month. I will start taking my multivitamins again.
  • Be more flexible on the types of condiments and spices I eat. I didn’t use any dried spices this month but probably will from now on, because it’s easier and it will add flavor to the majority raw food I’m making. I’ll worry less about the types of salad dressings I’m using, especially out at restaurants.
  • Weigh myself only once a week or so — not every day. It is taxing to be feeling healthy and good about what you’re eating and how much you’re exercising, only to have to look at the scale and try to tell yourself to ignore the slight 0.2 pound fluctuations in your weight. It’s how I feel that matters, not the number.
  • No more bans on alcohol. I only drank on two occasions this month, but will resume my normal moderate level of alcohol consumption. It will be nice to be able to have a beer out at Friday happy hours again!
  • I will probably eat some cooked vegetables. That way I will be able to get some more whole grains and beans into my diet. Also, there are some vegetables that I would really like to be eating but can’t really get raw, such as winter squashes and asparagus.

Final thoughts:

I feel confident that I can keep up this regimen of eating raw for another six weeks. Because I am not ready for it to end. It hasn’t been that hard to do so far. It is staring to feel normal. I am not craving large meals of cooked foods. At first, I thought the camaraderie and accountability of doing this raw experiment with the group would be what got me through it. But honestly, and no offense to any of my co-experimenters, it has felt like I have been in this thing pretty much alone for the last week or so anyway. Even though some of them have maintained raw to a certain percentage, we actually haven’t been communicating about it that much of late. So that means I know I can do it on my own too. It was great to be a part of this with everyone else, but it has also been a great personal journey and learning experience for myself as well. One that I want to continue, so I can continue feeling this good and healthy from now on.

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January 31, 2009

Thou Shalt Not Have Shalt Nots

Posted by the Other Erin

As the end of the month is upon us, I would like to congratulate the other rawhides on their completion of their 100%, 90%, 50%, etc. raw experiment.  You all are a fabulous bunch and I admire your commitments, your curiosities, and your ability to admit to oopses or to recognize when something was not right with your health.  A big thanks to Beck for leading the journey.

I still have one day left to finish out my 2 week trial of being raw-ish.  I know that I am the least raw-experienced of the bunch, but even so, I have definitely formed some thoughts on this experience.

I realize what I am about to say is strange coming from a vegetarian but I believe that (except for medical reasons) having rules for what you ”can” and “can not” eat is an unhealthy way to live, even if you are eating healthy foods.  As a vegetarian, I don’t want to eat meat, but at any point I can, should I choose.  In terms of temptation, my being a vegetarian is easy because I don’t have a taste for meat.  If I ever do want to eat meat again, I will.  This is the same for my recent change to eating foods without high fructose corn syrup.  I don’t want to eat those foods, so I wont.  However, when faced with the prospect of real maple syrup versus the childhood-memory-inducing, wonderful, sugary goodness of Mrs. Butterworth’s*, I’ll keep choosing Mrs. Butterworth because I can – I don’t want rules in my dietary life.  (This way of thinking happens to do away with ”temptation”, by the way.  But it also makes moderation a necessity.)

I know that the raw experiment was just that, an experiment.   And because it was an experiment and a new lifestyle, all of us had and followed rules.  Throughout my own raw experience and while reading the blogs, I noticed a lot of “can” / “can nots” and new rules taking shape.  Again, it was an experiment, so it was to be expected.  But, I know that I will not allow that thinking to inform the future choices I make regarding my diet and I can only hope that others will consider this, too, as they are forming their final thoughts.

So the big question:  How will this experiment affect my future eating habits?  I’m not going to give you a percentage of how raw I will be in the future.  I can’t honestly say that I will turn any one of my meals in the day over to raw.  I will, however, being enjoying more mostly-raw salads with dinner. And my snacking will most likely change. I’ve been wanting to make more of an effort of having fruit around and have enjoyed the opportunity to do that while I was raw without having the distraction of other standard foods.  So, more fruit…and more nuts for snacks.  All in all, I’m glad I tried it, but I’m also glad to be done.  Even if it was just 2 weeks.

*Yes, Mom, I know we didn’t use Mrs. Butterworth’s, but I didn’t think “generic Meijer brand pancake topping” had quite the same ring to it.

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January 30, 2009

Top 10 Things I Learned While Raw

Submitted by the Other Erin

In no particular order of importance:

  1. I prefer my vegetables cooked.
  2. Macadamia nuts are amazing.  They help make great “cheeses” and “soups”.
  3. I wish I was not waiting to start composting until spring.  There was a lot of food waste I could have used.
  4. Clementines are a new favorite quick grab snack. 
  5. Raw makes my muscles feel lightweight and airy…in a good way. 
  6. Raw can take almost as much preparation and planning as cooking.
  7. A date, eaten slowly and savored fully, is a decent alternative to chocolate.
  8. I need at least one warm meal to look forward to on a cold, wintery day.
  9. Avacado, clementines, sunflower seeds and a bit of garlic over mixed greens makes a great salad.
  10. Even with my increased fiber intake, my husband still farts more.

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January 29, 2009

Raw Dessert

Submitted by the Other Erin

Why give up sweet stuff when you’re eating raw?  Here’s one I enjoyed early on in the experiment:

Vanilla Cupcakes with Lime Frosting (from Complete Idiot’s Guide, again)   raw-005

  • 1/2 cup almonds
  • 1/2 cup macadamia nuts
  • 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
  • 1/4 cup almond butter
  • 3 TB agave nectar/raw honey
  • 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • pinch cinnamon
  • 1/4 cup avacado
  • 3 pitted dates (soaked at least 30 minutes)
  • 3/4 tsp. freshly squeezed lime juice
  1. Place almonds, macademia nuts, sunflower seeds, almond butter, nectar, vanilla, cinnamon in a food processor.  Process for 10-15 seconds or until sticky mixture of small chunks form (appetizing, I know!).
  2. With a small spoon, place mixture into 6 cupcake liner cups.  Flatten tops with a spoon.
  3. Place avacado, dates, and lime juice in a blender and blend on high for 20-30 seconds or until smooth and creamy.
  4. Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to allow icing to solidify as much as possible before spreading on top of cupcakes.
  5. Frost cupcakes and chill in fridge for at least an hour before serving.

These guys are good enough (and unique enough) to bring to a party and pass around, I promise.

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January 28, 2009

I am a Wayward Friend

Posted by Erin

I wish that it could be the 28th of January with 3 more days of raw diet to go, and that I could stand here (or lie on the bed here, as it were), boasting proudly that I have been %100 true to my commitment to eat nothing but raw food for a month. I wish that I could lie here and say that I upheld the virtue that I so admire, and was loyal and steadfast to my oath. But I can’t do that thing, and I feel regret for that.

It’s been going down like this: I’ve been 100% raw for breakfast, lunch, and snackies, but come dinner I have been eatin’ me some cooked things. Like pizza. And I won’t lie to you, it’s been magical. It’s the model of eating I’d like to adapt official-like after raw diet is over (you know, except for the whole pizza two nights in a row thing. It was so magical the first night, that I had some again the second night, and let me tell you this: it was good, but I’m learning the magic of magic is the novelty of it).

I don’t regret the pizza because of the pizza. I had it, I enjoyed the hell out of it, and pizza in moderation is a beautiful thing (note to self: two nights of pizza in a row is not moderation). And here is what I am learning in this process: when I tie myself to food limitations and then release myself, I tend to go a little wild at first, overwhelmed with choices and all. It can be overwhelming. But here are the goals to keep in mind: To be healthy, full, and happy. It’s going to take some adjusting to get the balance just right, but I feel good about it.

This does not take away from my waywardness to this experiment. So a formal apology to it: Sorry, raw diet. I hope I can be more committed to next month’s experiement. It wasn’t you, it was me. Ok, maybe it was you a little bit. I hope we can still be friends. Love, Erin <3

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