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Day 19

It’s time for another update on my 30-day experiment. So far it’s going surprisingly well, considering I am on the move all the time looking for a new apartment and working on my business. My diet is not very diverse at the time simply because I just don’t have much time to spend in the kitchen.

My breakfast is usually a vegetable juice or a green smoothie, which the best way to start a day, really. Since my coffee days are over I get my power shot from green leafy veggies and they do their job phenomenally well. There are no energy crashes, I don’t need to get another cup of java to wake up (I used to go through 3 cups of coffee before it was even a lunch time!), the energy of raw foods just comes into my blood stream and makes sure I have a smooth sailing throughout the day.

Lunch varies between salads, blended soups, or crudités and cashew dip (my current favorite). Sometimes, if I’m out of the house, my lunch happens around 4 pm and I skip dinner all together. I’ve noticed that I eat less now that I used to and I don’t feel hungry every 3 hours. The theory is that when we eat nutritionally rich foods our body gets what it needs much faster. The major reason people overeat on a Standard American Diet is their food is so low in nutrients (enzymes, vitamins, and minerals) that the body keeps asking for more, sending signals to the brain to go look for more food in hope that the body will get what it needs to function properly.

That is why the first benefit you get when you switch to the raw food diet is the weight loss. I’ve seen people lose up to 15 pounds in just 30 days of eating raw foods! Once you stop putting junk in your body and start giving your body what it needs, it thanks you by releasing unnecessary waste that has been accumulating inside for many years. Filling your body up with nutrients is beneficial on so many levels this post would have to be turned into a book to cover them all!

So for now I’ll just say, if you’ve been struggling with weight loss and feeling like you’ve lost that battle, then you simply must give the raw food diet a try. This is not another fad and not really a diet either. This is a way of eating and living that will transform your life beyond your greatest expectations. No calorie counting, no meals to purchase, no expensive supplements required, no limitations (only a few rules), simply fun and great results!

And if you want to learn more, come take a raw food class with me. You’ll learn more about the raw food diet, discover how easy and simple it is, taste many delicious recipes, (it’s not just carrots and celery sticks, believe me), leave with your questions answered and feeling much better about yourself and your life in general.

To Your Radiant Health,

Alina

Day 12

I spent the weekend in Washington DC and I must say – I am very proud of myself ☺ I spent two days away from home and managed to stay almost raw (for the exception of one meal I was 100% raw, the buffet we were taken to had no salads there, can you imagine that?! And I had to eat.). This was my first raw travel attempt and it went very well.

I took a huge container of crudités with me (celery, red bell peppers, baby carrots, and cucumbers) and I made a lovely cashew dip to go with them. I took apples, bananas, oranges, cashew nuts, pumpkin seeds, and flax crackers. And frankly I did not crave anything else at all. I never got hungry even though this was an excursion trip so we did A LOT of walking and my energy was steady and good. I concluded that traveling raw was all about a mind set and preparation.

It was interesting to observe people’s reactions though. I traveled with a friend and three other women, acquaintances of my friend. They were in their mid-50s (I am assuming) and I can’t say there were pictures of health. One woman was sort of okay with my eating because her daughter has been a vegetarian for 20 years but was covering her food with a layer of salt every time we ate something. Another lady though made lots of comments about my eating, although she wasn’t mean about it. She said that she would never believe that I could really enjoy my food, that I was just forcing myself to eat it! How funny is that. She said she couldn’t live a day without eating meat and loved everything fried. My simple, nutritious, natural meals were “abomination” to her. Yet she was taking meds for high blood pressure, headaches, and some other things I am sure. Whenever she commented on my food I just smiled politely and didn’t even defend myself. When asked about my vegan choice I said: “I don’t eat anything that walks, swims, or has a face”. That comment cracked them up so they got off my back. And there we were, in the middle of McDonald’s, them eating bread with cheese, horrible looking meat and Colas, and myself with my bananas, nuts, and water. Guess who felt better after the meal.

My friend commented that she didn’t feel good after eating all that food and that she really wanted to eat more vegetables and salads. On the second day of our tour she skipped lunch and stayed with me eating crudités and a cashew dip and she actually liked it a lot. Three months ago she started eating big salads almost every day when she saw me doing that. You never know how our eating habits can affect those around us, sometimes change happens when we least expect. I have another friend who lives in Canada and after she visited me the last time she was very proud to report that she now makes green smoothies for herself and her husband almost daily and makes almond milk for her cereal instead of dairy. And I wasn’t even preaching that much (just a my usual amount), but she saw me making smoothies for myself and tried them and knew right away how yummy and easy to make they were.

I really think that a lot of how we are perceived depends on our inner state. If we feel uncomfortable with our choices people will pick up on that and make us feel even more uncomfortable. But if we enjoy our food and don’t feel threatened by others’ comments, they will not be as aggressive as they could have been. We have to know why we eat raw food and what it does for us and then no matter what someone might say we do not feel like we have to change our eating habits or defend ourselves.

This morning I made some muesli with almond milk and didn’t eat until 7 pm when I made some chocolate milk from morning’s leftovers. I spent the entire day apartment hunting and didn’t eat anything during the day, but nevertheless I wasn’t hungry and my energy never dropped. I noticed that I am eating less now and I am training myself to eat only when hungry. I do need to increase my water intake though, I’ve noticed I don’t drink enough and water really makes the difference in how we feel.

I didn’t exercise today simply because I walked a lot during the weekend and my legs are still a bit sore.

I saw some very funny videos today – some Japanese guy created musical instruments out of vegetables and he demo played them. He was pretty good but it was funny to see him play a broccoli! Just go to YouTube and search for "handmade vegetable musical instruments".

To Your Radiant Health,

Alina

Day 8 - Importance of Support

Since going raw two years ago, I’ve come to realize that having some sort of support system in place is absolutely imperative to going raw successfully. When you are just starting, it is important to have someone who can help you navigate a sea of information, work through issues that may come up, and provide support and encouragement when the going gets tough.

I had a really rough evening yesterday. I had one of those “let-me-see-how-many-buttons-I-can-push” conversations with my mother and I felt completely drained by it. I felt awful after getting so much negative energy sent my way, sad from being completely misunderstood in my desire to serve others and create a business of my own, and being criticized for the choices I made in life. Some time ago my “normal” reaction to such situation would be a trip to a fridge for some ice-cream or some other form of cooked comfort food. But having been through a coaching process before I now knew that I had to deal with emotions and not stuff myself with food. What I did next was to reach out to my raw friends on a Yahoo group and just let everything out. I am blessed because I have an amazing group of people to go to and what I received back was validation, emotional support, and even a video that changed my perspective on the whole situation! As a result, I was able to stay raw, forgive my mother, apologize to her and move on to being happy again. Food wouldn’t have resolved anything for me, absolutely nothing but giving me a temporary sense of comfort.

That is why I think having support is so important on our raw journey. I have experienced it first hand when, at the beginning of my voyage into raw, I was trying to do it alone and failing miserably. When I finally decided to sign up for a coaching program, my life literally changed overnight. I got the knowledge I was lacking, professional guidance when my emotional eating issues started to rise up, and support not only from my coach but also from a wonderful group of women that were on the program with me. Having friends who are on the same page with you and who understand what you are going through and support you in any way they can or know how is crucial to a lasting raw food success.

And that is why I decided to become a coach myself, so I could provide that support to others. I spent the last two years reading almost nothing but stuff related to the raw food diet: numerous books, magazines, articles, ezines, blogs, and websites, learning all the information so that my clients wouldn’t have to spend so much time learning and I could make it easy and simple for them. I learned coaching techniques so I can help people get clear on their process, to be able to guide them along the journey. I have chosen coaching because I really saw that it was that step that many raw food beginners were missing and I truly desire to help people achieve positive results with the raw food diet.

So if you are struggling with going raw my first suggestion is to find a raw food coach that you can relate to (there are many so find the one who resonates with you), join raw food forums and make friendship, get out and attend raw food events, potlucks and parties. Just don’t do it alone. You don’t have to.

To Your Radiant Health,

Alina

Day 6

For breakfast I made a super smoothie - cilantro, pears, and a banana. It was delicious, light, and super tasty. Now, if you are trying to bring more greens into your diet, cilantro is a must have.

Cilantro truly is nature's superfood (not those bottled, expensive ones). Also known as a Chinese parsley, it contains iron, magnesium, and the manganese, a trace mineral used by our bodies for detoxification. It has been shown to help the body eliminate heavy metals, including mercury. The heavy metals are dangerous to a human body but unfortunately we get them on a regular basis - through our tap water, food we consume, and products we use on our body. The heavy metals interfere with our thyroid function and metabolic enzymes and also cause a lot of radical damage.

So, folks, make friends with cilantro, it will do you great good.

Lunch - kale salad with avocado.
Dinner - guacamole.

I've been craving salt for the past two days and eating lots of pickles to satisfy that craving. I know pickles are raw, but not sure if they are really healthy. Probably this much salt is not great but better this than cheese, right?

For exercise I did a 30-minute Pilates session (I use Winsor's DVD set).

I can say that my raw food experiment is going well, I am quite pleased with my progress.

On my business front, I've been incredibly busy, learning about marketing, taking courses, working on my website, talking to my graphic designer, and coming up with ideas for my business. I can't wait to see my website go live, it will be gorgeous, informative, and I have a great idea for a FREE product to offer my subscribers that I haven't seen on any other raw food related sites. I hope my future readers enjoy it. Which product that is? Well, you'll just have to wait and see :)

Until next time.

To Your Radiant Health,

Alina

Day 4

There was an interesting discussion today on Roger Haeske's blog regarding "raw wars". Roger spoke about his experience when he tried to run a raw support group in NYC a few years back and how much confrontation he was met with. Apparently, there were people who did not agree with his way of doing raw (Roger follows 80-10-10 diet and insists that this is the only way to eat raw correctly) and it resulted in group's breakup and many angry people going their separate ways.

Frankly, I wasn't there so I don't know the truth. And there are always two sides to each story, so I can't be a fair judge of this. However, what really upset me was Roger's continuous ramble out how 'the other people' were wrong and he was right. Still, several years later, he apparently holds grudges and keeps talking about that. Further more, he went on creating a couple of more posts dedicated to Dr. Graham, in which Dr. Graham criticized extensively Paul Nison's reply to some blogger. I honestly don't have a problem with either Dr. Graham or Roger, but I am getting tired of hearing this beakering all the time. I guess for Roger it's either Dr. Graham's way or no way.

What's even worse, the discussion turned to bashing the Raw Spirit Festival as "the dark side of raw" because, according to Dr. Graham's followers, the festival banned Dr. Graham from presenting and was only created to promote numerous products and gurus. Never mind that this festival did for promoting the raw food movement and how many people got united because of it and found friends and supporters.

Granted, Roger experienced great results with this particular way of eating raw and he uses it with all his clients. However, I tend to disagree with his way of doing business.

It is my firm belief that "different strokes for different folks". One diet does not fit all and should never be promoted that way. Every raw food teacher has his/her own opinion and experience with raw food and that's what they teach. Nobody is perfect and nobody knows the whole truth. And no one should have the final word either. Different ways of eating raw will work for different people. Someone who's been eating Standard American Diet their whole life will not be successful going 100% raw overnight and eating nothing but fruit and greens. It's just not realistic, especially for women who tend to be more emotional eaters. Many will need this transaction period of raw versions of their favorite dishes, dehydrated foods, and fat heavy deserts. Is it healthy? Not in the long run but for someone who's diet has been nothing but junk food even this way of eating will make a huge difference. So many factors go into determining what's right for someone, far more than just food.

Should we ban Alissa Cohen's book then just because most of her recipes are nut and fat based? People like Roger would probably say yes. But look at what Alissa did for the movement - her book brought thousands of people to raw food, she was the first raw foodist on Oprah (well, actually I think there was another woman before her but that woman didn't get much of the air time), her Raw Food Talk forum is one of the biggest forums (and a very active one) on the web, forum's members went on creating numerous blogs and thousands of recipes. And the same can be said about many other big names in the raw food movement.

I don't understand where all this hostility and competitiveness is coming from in the raw food movement. There is room for everybody here, but it seems that people just can't co-exist in peace. Let's not create "gurus" so we are not disappointed later, let's create space for everyone to bring what they have to the table and let the folks decide what appeals to them.

Look at the world of yoga. There are so many different kinds of yoga now and yet they all seem to be able to co-exist more or less peacefully. There are some bad apples I am sure but the majority is just excited about yoga and passionate about it. People just choose the style that speaks to them or go on to trying various styles and mixing them up. Personally I was trained as a Svaroopa Yoga teacher and yet I practice Kundalini, Ashtanga, Hatha, and even Budokon on occasion. I do what I feel I need at the moment and I don't have any inner conflict about which style is "the right one". Why can't we do the same with the raw food diet?

Well, anyway, I will get off my horse now :)

Today's menu:
Breakfast - juice made of pineapple, spinach, and celery.
Lunch - leftover pizza
Snacks - a couple of flaxseed crackers
Dinner - juice made of beet, carrots, cucumber, celery, garlic, ginger, and apple. Made about a quart of it and drank it all, yummy!

I feel full, happy, and quite good about my progress so far.

Love and health,

Alina

Day 3

Today was an interesting day. I woke up sore from yesterday's workout so no exercise today, I don't like to torture myself :)

Breakfast - green juice made of pineapple, spinach, celery, cucumber, and lime. Love this one, my favorite combination, really hits the spot.

For lunch I munched on some pickled mushrooms, wasn't hungry.

Today I decided to venture into new territory - raw pizza :) Frankly, I am not big on cooking, never was. My mom never liked cooking and I guess I took after her. For many years I ate out of a box (so called TV dinners), everything was pre-made, microwaved, or ordered in.

Even with raw foods, my main dishes are smoothies, juices, and salads, unless I go out to a raw restaurant. But today I was inspired to try something new, break myself out of a routine. So I opted out for a pizza.

I found an easy recipe for a base, which I actually had all ingredients for (lucky me!). Put it together, threw it in the dehydrator. The nut cheese was slightly challenging because I didn't have the nuts required (macadamia) but I decided to go with what I had - cashew and pine nuts. It came out ok, a bit too sweet but fine. Did the marinara sauce and some marinated veggies for topping.

So here's the photo of a final result - a slice of raw pizza. It was yummy! AND it passed the "husband test" so it was cool :) The hubby really loved it and said he wished he could eat it every day! I am now inspired to spend more time in the kitchen. However, I don't think I'll go for a pizza any time soon - it took 6 hours to get it ready! Dehydration is great but only on special occasions. I just don't have the patience :)

In the evening we went to a friend's birthday party and I had 2 glasses of red wine. I know, I know, wine is raw but not the best option for me, but I don't go out much so I allow myself to relax in a company of friends.

Although tomorrow is Sunday I will be working on my business all day. Having a flexible schedule works great for me, I chose for myself which days I am going to have off. My website is almost ready, I expect it to be "live" in two weeks. I am very excited about it and cannot wait for everyone to see it. I will have some really cool stuff on it as well (but I'll keep it secret for now :)).

Until tomorrow.

Love and health,

Alina

Day 2

So yesterday went well - I ate what I planned to eat and it felt good. Around 9 pm I got a bit hungry so I ate about a cup of spouted green peas, very sweet and filling. And I did my yoga session, which I was reluctant to do at first but felt great afterwards. So, I would say Day 1 was a success.

This morning I woke up feeling pretty darn good. I was full of energy and feeling happy. I did a 30-minute workout first thing (I have a bunch of different DVDs and videos at home, but this morning I felt like doing a TransFIRMer DVD, something I bought after watching an informercial (gasp!) but it is actually very good).

For breakfast I prepared a raw muesli (assorted nuts, raisins, goji berries, apple, orange) with almond mylk and that bowl lasted me until after 2 pm. My husband loved it too, but he generally likes everything I make him for breakfast :) It's just that usually after he has a green smoothie or a juice he wants to eat something else, but not today - a bowl of muesli kept him going until the afternoon.

For lunch I prepared a blended salad, made of a zucchini, tomato, spring onion, garlic, celery, spinach, salt/pepper - very good, yummy, and satisfying. I used to make these huge salads that would take me almost 40 minutes to eat (I am not kidding!) so blended salads are an answer to my prayer - it only takes me 5 minutes to eat and easy to digest.

Dinner was simple since I just wasn't that hungry - I had some seaweed salad and then later a few flax crackers. So far, so good.

I found a funny video on YouTube, funny but so very true.

Enjoy!

Love and Health,

Alina

30 Days of Raw - Day 1

Today I woke up to a gorgeous sunny day in New York City. The birds were singing outside my window, a cool breeze was entering my bedroom, street noise… I looked outside and saw the trees covered in fresh green leaves – the spring is definitely here fully force.

I feel like first of May is the prefect time to start a spring cleanse and bring up the volume on my raw food diet. Having been inspired by my gorgeous raw friend Jo Thomas (who just finished a 40-day 100% raw journey you can read all about at DiscoverRAW Blog) I decided to embark on my own 30 days of 100% raw exploration. I have been raw for two years but never fully 100% for more than a couple of weeks (shame!).

But now I feel I am ready. Spring is the best time to start the raw food diet, I believe. The weather is getting nice and warm, the days are long again, more and more fruit, veggies, berries, and greens show up at farmers markets (local and fresh produce is the best!) and we no longer have to worry about dark cold nights where we search for familiar cooked foods in order to find comfort.

I will try to blog every day about my experience, even though my new business takes up most of my time and I rarely have much time left for anything else.

So for today on the menu:

Breakfast – spinach/mango smoothie
Lunch – kale salad with tomatoes and olives
Snacks – apples and some nori sheets (which I just fold and munch on, works for me!)
Dinner – beet/carrot/cucumber/garlic/ginger/apple juice (my favorite vegetable juice, fantastic for the liver cleansing and skin improvement)

Being glued to my computer all day I don’t spend as many calories and therefore don’t require as much food. I’ll report tomorrow how this worked for me. I also plan on doing a yoga session today, I do need to bring exercise in daily.

Love and health,

Alina