The Cooked Experiment

"You know what I want more than anything for Christmas, Daddy?" I asked, following a list of objects I would like to receive under the Christmas tree. "The gift of life! You could be vegan with me...vegan December. Peace on earth."

To my surprise, Dad didn't look at me as if I was being ridiculous. In fact, his response was, "I would be willing to be vegetarian - if you would start eating some cooked vegan foods again."

And that was how it started. My family is eating vegetarian meals, which I will share with them - in true family dinner fashion (which was done away with a while ago in my family, when I started taking interest in my health and the ingredients that would make up my sacred temple of a body, while my mother, father, and brother lacked this enthusiasm), throughout the month of December (maybe longer, if cravings for their meaty addictions don't get the best of them), as an experiment for themselves (and maybe a ploy to get me eating 'normal' food again, and to experience family dinners again).

I still won't eat wheat. I still won't eat salt. I still plan upon keeping it low fat high carb. My breakfast, lunch, and snacks will still be fruit. I don't think I'll eat legumes. I don't want to eat refined foods like flour and sugar. And as soon as January comes, I already can't wait to metaphorically throw myself back into fruit's perfect embrace and start repairing the damage that I know I'm furthering with each bite I take.

Both parties will obviously have to compromise this month to make this work. I know the idea that I would give up my fruit for a month sounds ludicrous to a lot of my friends who understand just what I'm giving up, and the damage that I will be putting myself through.

But for this month, because I love my family and because I know it will make them happy, I temporarily walk away from the beautiful, colorful, flavorful world that is low fat raw veganism, for the less enchanting reality of cooked veganism.

Anyhow, this month, I plan upon posting about things I'm experiencing differently from fruit, tribulations and triumphs, etcetera.

So, tonight was December 1st. I had my first cooked family meal, "Brown Rice & Lentil Soup". It was fat free, basically tomatoes, rice, lentils, corn, and some other vegetables, all mixed together into a soup. I noticed just a few things.

• The soup (though there was a lot of water in it from the tomato juice, I assume) felt quite dehydrating.
• I normally don't feel the need to drink much water throughout the day (and my pee is most always clear), but I've been drinking non-stop since dinner.
• I felt really super full.
• I was kind of hungry, and the soup was pretty good...but after about half a bowl, I felt so full I just couldn't eat anymore.
• It would seem it is way easier to eat lots of energy from fruit. I can't imagine I had more than 200cal over dinner...
• I felt emotionally off after dinner last nigh.
• I don't know whether it was real or in my mind, but I felt distracted, heavy, tired, and just not...lacking that emotional glow I feel from fruit, I guess. Interesting.

That's all I've got for today. But stay tuned, I guess. I plan on posting every few days, listing new experiences and noticings.

Peace!

Can I Eat Cooked Food Sometimes?

There are a number of reasons that a person may decide to go raw vegan. Perhaps you've chosen this path because you want to be skinnier. Maybe you'd like to look vibrant and healthy. You might want endless energy. Maybe you were attracted at the idea of never getting sick. Or perhaps, you're in it for the benefits it offers to your athletic performance. My personal favorite result of low fat, high carb, raw veganism is the mental stability, clearness, and happiness that I have experienced.

Needless to say, there are a lot of different reasons that a person might choose to follow a raw path.

There is nothing like raw and it is absolutely worth every sacrifice you have to make to get there! However, staying 100% raw is sometimes a challenge - in terms of convienience, habits, addictions, and social situations. Most raw vegans have in some instant wished or wondered whether they could get the results that the want from raw veganism, and still occasionallu eat some cooked food. (After all, we've all been taught that moderation is key! Haha.)

Well, absolutely. If you feel like you need or want to eat cooked food, experiment with it and see what works for you. (One example I often use, is that I drink not-from-concentrate Florida's Natural orange juice very liberally, and have never noticed negative results.) If you do choose to go the route of eating some cooked food, I do have a few pointers and tips you may want to at least read over and consider:

1) Always stay vegan. No matter how bad you miss meat, or how much want to be inconspicuous in social situations, in my opinion, vegan is absolutely non-negotiable.
Animal foods are severly acidifying to the body, which encourages cancer cell growth. They have also been linked to obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and other scary, chronic diseases. They are high in fats and protiens and low in carbohydrates and micronutrients. (And I'm not even going to go into the effects of animal consumption on the environment, the animals, and the starving inhabitants of Africa who are being exploited.)
I do not believe that meats have anything to offer the body, that we cannot get from whole plant foods.

2) You may not feel well constantly switching from raw to cooked and back again - you might find yourself in some sort of unpleasant limbo of constant detox or something of the sort. Just be aware of this.

3) I definitely suggest you stay away from salt (this can be very hard if you're trying to just eat what everyone else is eating/for social reasons, because it would seem that the entire world is addicted to this drug, and doesn't even realize it. As you may or may not know, salt is an excitotoxin (I don't actually know what that means in itself lol.) but, I know that what it does is 'excite' your tastebuds so that you taste flavors more vividly - however, it leaves tastebuds damaged, so that you are less able to taste flavor the next time you eat - therefore, you need more and more salt each time, for flavor....kind of the same way a heroin or cocaine user needs to increase the amount of drug that he's consuming to get the high he wants and to fulfil his addiction.
In addition, I'm sure you know that salt is cellular poison and dehydrates your body (this is why we have used it to preserve foods for hundreds of years). Bloating and other problems are the result of your body trying to protect itself from this damaging drug.

4) Stay away from wheat. It's addictive, refined, and the gluten makes you feel like crap.

5) Obviously, not all cooked foods are created equal. Try to keep it low fat, whole plant based, high carb. Baking, frying, grilling creates carcinogens. Steamed and boiled foods are always best.
Cooked veggies and tubers are the most ideal. Rice and other whole grains are acceptable. Legumes will give you toxic gas and stuff, they're hard to digest. Refined foods like bread and pasta are..well, refined.

Good luck!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everybody (in the US) had an awesome, cruelty free Thanksgiving! I know I did. I just wanna share some pictures of my high-carb, low-fat, salt-free, whole plant food vegan (not raw, though) thanksgiving dinner!

Here's my pumpkin pie pudding, chillin' next to everybody else's!

Basically just roasted pumpkin pureed and blended with dates (soaked in water a few hours), and pumpkin pie spice, to taste.

On top is some delicious, creamy coconut milk (which is basically the consistency of whipping cream).

And here's my dinner! Fruit salad, squash, steamed brussels sprouts, more fruit salad, a baked sweet potato, and cranberries! All made from whole plant foods, without salt. All the 'side dishes' everybody else was eating and loving!

I love being a raw vegan, but I think sharing some traditional cooked foods with my family on special occasions is really awesome. I don't get to share meals with people a lot, because my family are a bunch of omnivores; so I think I'm missing out on an element of social life that a lot of people take for granted. Therefore, on the few occasions that I do compromise and eat some (still delicious) cooked foods, I really enjoy eating what everybody else is eating and sharing.