Fresh From the Store, or Frozen From the Garden?

Hi all!

I've been a fairly strict raw foodist for quite a while now. However, this summer,, I have found myself going away from that somewhat. Instead of living strictly on raw foods, I've begun to live strictly on foods that make me feel good, and foods that meet my needs well, without necessarily always being raw, or fruit.

For those who don't know me, I am a 17 year old vegan hippie child living smack dab in the middle of Wisconsin. Summer is a wonderful time for me, because summers in WI are gorgeous. Especially this year, we've had a perfect amount of rain and everything is green and lush and beautiful.

We maintain 3 huge, magnificent gardens, plus a blueberry patch, an apple orchard, some grape vines, and 2 raspberry patches.

Here's the first, where we're growing zucchini, spaghetti squash, pumpkins, and a whole lot of canaloupe. Behind it you can see our blueberry and yellow raspberry patch.

Here's garden #1. This guy's the main garden, the star of the show....in it we've got zucchini, cucumber, watermelon, cantaloupe, corn (which the raccoons keep getting to before us), red & yellow potatoes, sweet potatoes, and a million different kinds of peppers and tomatoes. Plus herbs like parsley, basil, and cilantro.

This is garden #2, where we grow most of our green veggies and such, that don't take up quite as much space - lettuce mix, kale, chard, chinese cabbage, cabbage, broccoli, kohlrabi, onions, carrots, beets, dill, and cilantro. Behind, you can see our cute little apple orchard.

And finally, here's our asparagus, rhubarb, grape vines (they took a pretty serious hit last year,, there was a bad storm, which knocked them over, combined with last years drought - we're lucky we've still got grapes), and our red & black raspberry patch!

Oh, and just for good measure, here's our awesome compost pile that keeps everything in our garden so healthy!

These are BIG gardens, and there are only 4 of us - and nobody else in my family are as big of plant eaters as I. Which leaves us with a lot of extra produce!

In past years I, being the young, over-zealous and dogmatic raw vegan I was, felt that it would be better to eat only fresh produce from the store during the winter, than blanched, pickled, or dehydrated produce from our garden.

However, this summer, I've been starting to feel like I was so wrong. The produce I buy in the winter is conventional, where as what's in our garden is basically uncertified organic. Our produce has life force, and I have been lovingly involved in every step of its maturation. I'm finding I'd much rather get my nutrients from slightly processed, preserved homegrown produce than from questionable store-bought lettuce all winter. I'm kinda thinking low-/salt/-free, prefrably canning-free homesteading is the way to go.

So this summer, we've frozen several bags of kohlrabi and broccoli, and theres still more coming! I have bein dehydrating zucchini with some yummy salt-free Penzey's seasonings every day for the past week now, and I've also made a few dill & chipotle cucumber chips with our plethora of cucumbers (and dill lol). I've been making jar after jar of "freezer pickles" - I'll definitely do a post on that, promise! And we'll be making tomato sauce and salsa when Mom and I get back from the Woodstock Fruit Festival 2013 (you can bet your booty I'll made a post on that, too!), and we we will be roasting and freezing most of our peppers. Finally, potatoes and sweet potatoes will be stored the root cellar for future use - and I plan on eating them. Even though they are not raw. (DUN DUN DUN.....) Only for dinner though. I still love getting my fruit on!

So, thats basically whats been going on with me! Keep tuned for more posts in the future - mom and I have a 20hr car ride ahead of us, so I should have a great plenty of time to type, haha.

Peace!

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Low Fat Raw Vegan 811 Dinner Ideas

Struggling On A Raw Food Diet?

Are you not getting everything you had hoped for out of your raw food diet? If so, you're not alone! Many, many people find themselve exactly where you are. I myself was struggling with my raw food diet for quite a while, until I discovered the information that I am going to share with you in this article.

Most raw foodists say they eat "a lot" of food. But the thing about raw food is that it is MUCH less calorically dense than the cooked food they were raised on. My first thought, if you are not feeling awesome, is that you are not getting enough calories. Are you tracking your caloric intake on a website like Cronometer.com? Doing this really helped me to better understand the foods I was eating, how much I should be eating, ect. I suggest aiming for at least 2500cals per day for women, 3000 for men, and significantly more than that if you excersize or are otherwise active.

Next, it's best to examine where your calories are coming from. Namely, are you eating enough fruit? On a raw diet, there are 2 places to get our calories from: fats (nuts, seeds, avocado) or sweet fruits. Obviously, greens/veggies could never supply enough calories to keep us going throughout the day. Fats are good in small amounts (maybe 1 avocado or 1 - 2oz nuts per day), but I don't think there can be much argument that we shouldn't be getting the bulk of out calories from them!

So that leaves us with fruit as the bulk source of our calories. What could be better? Everybody knows how nutritionally awesome fruit is. However, sadly, many people are scared to eat too much fruit because it's "too much sugar". I hope you haven't fallen into that trap. Remember that the sugar in fruit is accompanied by fiber, nutrients, water, ect. It is not refined and it is nothing to be afraid of. It is worth noting that generally any study that points to fruit as the source of health complications (such as obesity or diabetes) used isolated (refined) fructose or glucose, NOT whole fruit.

In fact not only is fruit not bad for us, but it is what our bodies run on most optimally. It is delicious, it digests so easily, and it kicks cravings like none other! The energy in fruit is very easy for us to utilize, as our bodies run on glucose. It takes very little relative effort by your body to convert simple carbohydrate sugars to glucose, which means more energy for you!

Now that we know fruit is the best source of calories, how much of it should you be eating? Fruit is far less calorically dense than cooked food or even raw fatty sources of calories like avocado, nuts or seeds. In a typical day I eat:

-breakfast: 9-10banana smoothie, w/ water (or other calorically equivalent smoothie) for around 1000calories
-lunch (I eat at school): green smoothie (ex: 5nanas, 1c pineapple, 1/2cilantro, 1c greens, 1c water) or monomeal (of oranges, this time of year), about 600cals
-2nd lunch (I eat again several class periods later in study hall): green smoothie or smoothie, about 600cals
-dinner: GIANT SALAD (1+ head lettuce, half a cuke, half an avo, 1 tomato, strawberries/apples/oranges, and 1/2c+ dried fruit or dates, + fruit-based, homemade, fat-free salad dressing (leave me a comment if you'd like some ideas, I'd definitely do a post on that), or a blended salad, 400 - 500cals
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All this = around 2,700cals.

Eating this way, I feel AMAZING, better than I can remember ever feeling! I have so much energy. I am 5'2 weighing 100lb, and I've been eating this way for over a year now....so all the sugar in this fruit certainly hasn't made me fat! (;
(Oh, here you go, if you don't believe me:)

I was never fat, but I haven't always had a nice, flat stomach, either! Here's a before & after.

What does a typical day of food look like for you, in detail/numeric amounts? If you still have questions, feel free to post a comment below!

Peace. (:

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What A Teenage Fruitarian Eats In A Day

I get people asking me often enough, what and how much they should be eating in a day. I obviously can't answer that 100% - we're all different; only you can answer that by experimenting and finding out what what works for you.

However, I can show you what works for me and what I do, to give you some sort of basic understanding.

So, here is a play-by-play of everything I'm eating today!

Breakfast - smoothie (1L):
—4-5 bananas
—2c OJ
—¾c strawberries (or other berry)
Blend everything until smooth.

I always start my day with a smoothie! I sometimes experiment with different foods for breakfast, but in my experience, a smoothie for breakfast is the best! It's hydrating, flavorful, easy to digest, and full of healthy carbohydrates to fill you up and energize you for the day.

I've found that it's very important to get enough calories in my breakfast meal, and that eating a lot early in the morning provides excellent energy levels and a positive mood for the whole day - plus I'm not hungry all the time for the rest of the day.

This size smoothie normally fills me up until lunch - but some days I'm hungry earlier, so I often bring a small snack of whole fruit or extra smoothie to school with me (it almost always gets eaten up, either before lunch or as a snack in the afternoon).

Snack - extra green smoothie that wouldnt fit in my lunch jar. Aha

Lunch - green smoothie (1L):
—2c romaine
—¼cilantro
—1c water
—½lemon, juiced
—3bananas
—1.5c pineapple
Blend greens with water and lemon until smooth. Add fruit, blend again until smooth.

This is probably my favorite green smoothie! I love pineapple with greens.

For lunch, I normally have either a green smoothie or a monomeal of whole fruit.

I like the fruit monomeal because it is convenient and easy. Recently, my monomeal has been about 10 oranges. There're super easy to transport and don't go bad fast, so it's nice.

I'm out of oranges now, though, so I've been doing green smoothies instead. I really like the way they are sort of savory and sweet at the same time. I think this is awesome for lunch, because you're not looking for something quite as sweet at lunchtime as you had for breakfast, but you still need a good amount of calories to get you through the rest of the day. Making smoothies take a little extra prep time in the morning, but they are also a nice, convenient way to eat at school (or work).

Dinner - 2 heads of broccoli dipped in maybe ½c sundried tomato paste, with ¼ avocado and a sprinkling of curry

This may sound like a wierd meal, but I thought it was super good! Lol, I have really been loving broccoli the past few days! (And, it was on sale at the grocery store, aha.)

I've noticed that at different times, I'll crave different types of greens and fruits. (I normally can't stand broccoli or cruciferous veggies, but I sometimes go through phases of like a week, where I just can't get enough of them. Wtf?) I can't imagine this is anything other than my body telling me what it needs, which I think is pretty cool! ...I used to try and eat the things that I knew were *good* for me....but I've found that I feel and do a lot better when just eating the fruits and veggies I'm wanting to eat at the time.

Previously to my broccoli kick, I was doing a cucumber "pasta" just about every night, with a sauce that differed from day to day. I posted a few of these sauce recipes. Basicalky what I would do, would be blend up a base of about 1c water and 2 - 3c greens, then add spices, herbs, other veggies, to to taste, and see what worked. This was super fun, and made for awesome flavor variey - even when using basically the same base ingredients every day, hah. (:

I like having a savory, green meal for dinner. I often throw in a few dates or some dried fruit to sweeten the meal up. The sweetness helps to satiate better than if it were just a low-calorie green meal. The fact that I eat more carb calories earlier in the day, makes it possible for me to have and enjoy a green/salad-type meal for dinner.

I also had about 2½ cups of water today. I don't force down the water like I know sme raw foodists do. I just drink when I feel I need it. Many days, I don't actually drink water by itself (though I normally blend some with my smoothies), and this seems to work just fine for me.

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So, thats my intake for the whole day! Keep in mind that I am a small-boned, 5'2, 100lb female. I don't do huge amounts of excersize, especially being winter - just some walking and about an hour of yoga every night.

So, obviously most people are going to need more food than this. The best way to figure out just how much food you need is to listen to your own body and experiment: there is no one size fits all answer.

If you are just beginning a low fat raw vegan diet, theres a good chance your tummy won't even be able to fit all the food you'll be needing! This is because cooked food is a more concentrated source of calories - a lot of the fiber and water that is present in raw foods is normally removed in cooked food. So it will take some getting used to, just do the best you can - and if you must, don't be afraid to maybe supplement with some rice for dinner, if you must. It's better than not getting enough food, in my opinion!

Hope this was helpful to you!

-Peace!

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Fruitarian Kitchen!

This makes me so happy :')

This is what a successful raw vegan's house looks like!

On My Mind//11

Fruitarianism: The art of feeling, looking, and being the healthiest you ever have, by eating sweets for every meal!

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.

Veganism Saves Human Lives.

Have you heard mention of going how going vegan not only saves the lives of ythe animals that you chose not to eat (and you!) but those of starving children in developing countries as well? Are you intrigued by the idea, but don't really understand how it works?

Somebody asked me to explain this to them the other night, and I realized that there are probably more people out there who don't quite understand how exactly this plays out, so I wanted to share a simple version of the process, as I understand it, today.

See, the thing is, 150 tons of cereal grains and edible legumes fit for human consumption, fed to livestock results in less than 30 tons of meat. Obviously, we would be able to feed far more people if we fed the grains straight to people,rather than having them go through livestock.

In addition, many big companies exploit undeveloped countries such as Africa and Central American countries, by utilizing arable land there, to grow grain for livestock, which is then fed to Americans/developed countries. This, thereby, obviously creates a food deficit in Africa and the other less developed countries, as the grains that they could be eating are being used to feed cattle in America instead.

Thereby, eating meat supports the exploition and starvation caused by the meat industry in third world countries.

Karma Always Wins.

Literally or hypothetically, I believe in karma. I know some people don't; I could go into a flurry of reasons explaining why I do (and, come to think of it, I might in a later post), but today I want to focus on karma and the food we eat. It all makes so much sense.

First, we all know somebody who eats a standard American diet. This person is eating animals that were imprisoned and miserable their whole lives, and then finally tortured (burned to death in boiling water, necks slit while they're still alive and conscious...read the book Slaughterhouse by Gail A. Eisnitz) as their lives were ended. This person is almost inevitably going to be obese at some point in their life. They have endless health issues such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, depression, high blood pressure, fatigue... the list goes on. Score one for karma.

Now lets take a look at a vegetarian. Generally, this person eats no meat products - although some eat fish and chicken. They also still eat eggs and milk. A vegetarian's risk of obesity and/or most chronic diseases is generally significantly lower, but problems are obviously not rare. In addition, vegetarians still have problems with everyday illnesses like flus and colds.

Next, I shall speak of vegans and raw vegans. I'd say they're both about the same, ethically - so I am grouping them together. Vegans eat no animal products. This means that they are not contributing to the slavery and cruelty that is the egg and dairy industry. Unsurprisingly, their health tends to correlate with their compassion. Vegans generally do not experience problems like anger issues or depression as these are often caused by hormones in animal products. Their chance of heart disease is a whopping 46% lower than that of a meat eater, and a vegan is far less likely to become obese in their lifetime. In addition, they don't have the weight of 600+ lives weighing down on their shoulders. That's big.

Believe it or not, it can get even better. A true fruitarian takes no lives. Plants or animals. It is the epitome of a compassionate diet. What is fruitarianism like? There's so much to tell. So much energy. I sleep well at night. I'm almost never sick. No BO. Amazing capacity to feel and cope with emotions. Good mood. Constant, simple appreciation for everything. Excellent hydration, normally without drinking water. Clean, smooth, comfortable digestion.... I'm serious, I could go on for days, but you're not going to understand the real, simple, natural beauty that the diet really is until you've experienced it. And I want so badly to be able to share the experience with the world. Maybe that will never happen... But I can at least share it with you, and in turn, maybe you will inspire somebody close to you to share it with you...

Youtube Videos!

So, my friend has recently jumped on board with veganism, and of course we have every reason to be thrilled!

Remember:

In addition, it's certainly worth remembering that by eating vegan you are also declining to support an industry that enslaves and murders millions of animals in a single day.

Anyhow, after learning of all this, Brittany was convinced - and not only that! She's feeling very passionate about her decision! So, we were inspired to begin a YouTube series documenting her progress and experiences as/becoming a vegan, as well as discussing some important tips for succeeding on a vegan diet, as well as going in depth on why we should all work towards being vegan ourselves!
This series will be exceptionally nice for you if you love learning about the raw, vegan, fruitarian, 80-10-10, or any other diets of the sort - as we plan to (at least briefly) cover them all!

In addition, these videos are seriously just going to be a lot of fun! We both have a lot of personality, and a lot to say... And I'm sure this is going to shine through in these videos! (Can you tell I'm a little excited? Haha.)

This is our first video. It just discusses the reasons that Brittany chose to go vegan!

Second video, Brittany's first mono fruit meal! She discusses some of the simple reasons that mono meals, if possible, are always the best!

There will be more coming! And they'll be posted here - if you're interested, subscribe on here or on YouTube, and have an amazing, fruit-filled day!

Simplest Sandwitches!

So simple, so yummy, so nutritious!

Only two basic ingredients!

• Greens (romaine, red leaf, iceberg...whichever's your favorite)
• Tomato
• +optional condiments

Making them is so simple as well!

Get out all of your ingredients, slice tomatoes.
Put a slice or 2 of tomato on lettuce leaf. (Here I'm also putting on a mustard sauce.. I'll discuss this below.)

Fold lettuce over, bite, and enjoy!!

And now for a few optional condiments that I think taste rather delicious! (In case you don't think you could enjoy just lettuce and tomatoes... or are just looking for a way to spice it up.) I don't believe any of these are technically 80-10-10 though, in case that's important to anybody.

1. Mustard sauce - mix some mustard with a little agave, maple syrup, or date paste; spread a little on each piece of tomato.
2. Black pepper, oregano, garlic - this is not
3. Chili pepper, lime juice

And of course, you can experiment with your own concoctions as well!

What I Ate Today & A Recipe!

• 1/2 head kale
• 1/3 head romaine lettuce
• 1 roma tomato
• 1 pineapple
• 2 1/2 zucchini
• 3 bananas
• 3/4 c sun-dried tomatoes
• 4 Tbsp chili powder
• 3/4 c orange juice

Nut-Free, Overt Fat Free, LFRV Tacos!

Ingredients:

• Some sort of greens (kale, romaine, etc)
• 1 zucchini (or you could use other vegetable such as maybe carrot or beet?)
• 2 Tbsp chili powder
• Chipotle pepper
• Garlic (optional)
• Sundried tomatoes

Instructions:

• Grind sundried tomatoes to small bits/chunks in blender/food processor
• Add zucchini, blend until chunky
• Spoon mixture into bowl
• Mix in chipotle, chili powder, & optional garlic
• Wrap a small/medium amount of the mixture in each of your greens, and enjoy!

Changed My Blog, Changed My Mind!

Today, I was in Madison, doing some shopping for expensive healthy/delicious food that I figured it was okay to splurge on... even though I'm on a budget - Saturday's my birthday after all! Haha, anyhow, I was at Whole Foods Market eating a lovely salad consisting of greens, tomatoes, parsley, sweet corn, and a little bit of garlic (I don't know how I feel about that. I will do some reflecting in the next few days and decide. Haha), when I realized something.

I really enjoy eating vegetables. I've found that at times I feel compelled to eat greens, plain - just as I would fruit. Moreover, I have been doing significant amounts of reading in the past weeks from accredited scientists and anthropologists who do indeed support the theory that humans certainly are designed to bem, and naturally are, frugivores. (I'll try to remember to post some links in the near future!) However, I am aware that there are no perfect fruitarians in nature - frugivores eat mainly fruit, but also indulge in leaves and succulant vegetables when they feel the need.

While fruits are an excellent source of minerals, vegetative matter such as greens contain a much better supply of some necessary vitamins.

I still do believe that fruit is certainly the optimal diet for humans, being frugivores, and should certainly make up the majority of a person's diet. However, I no longer wish to advocate a 100% fruit diet for health reasons. Spiritually... maybe in future I will continue down the road of 100% fruit. But I am done decieving myself into believing that it is the most healthful thing to eat just fruits.

At this point, I am officially chosing to willingly partake in the ingestion of vegetative matter, that does not *kill* the plant. This will include things like greens (though perhaps not baby greens), broccoli, ...I can't think of anything else right now. Haha. I will continue abstaining from eating things that directly cause the death of the plant, such as modified-stem vegetables like kohlrabi or potatoes, or root veggies like beet and carrots.

Since I have made this decision, it would be a lie to continue titling my blog, "I Was A Teenage Fruitarian", so, I have changed it to "Embracing My Inner Frugivore" - because I continue to believe that we are all designed to eat a raw, fresh, frugivorous diet, just like our early ancestors and the members of the ape family that science tells us we evolved from.

As I have said before: As I have done now, I change my views on diet and what is healthy and good for me all the time, based on new experiences and information made available to me. The things I advocate are certainly the things I believe in at the time - but I am a 15 year old girl, I'm certainly not a scientist. While I have to assume my beliefs are pretty close to right (haha), I'm certainly not 100% correct, and not qualified to be a solid resource. However, I certainly invite you to do more research on your own to verify my assertions.

Eat fruit (and greens, haha), be healthy, be happy! G'day to you.

$40//Week 1

• 3 mangos ($3 - sale)
• 2 pineapple (roughly $8 - sale)
• 21lb bananas (about $10.38) ...there's about 3.5 bananas in a pound, by the way.
• 8lb oranges (around ($7.38 - sale) ...about 12.
• 2 seedless cucumbers ($2 - sale)
• 2 roma tomatoes ($.80 - sale)
• 2 limes ($.66 - on sale)

That's a grand total of 10,554 calories with $32 this past week. In future, I plan on purchasing more bananas, so as to get more cheap (but oh so nutritious!) calories... But seeing as this is my first week, not only eating on a budget, but also focusing on getting as more calories, specifically from carbs. (I've absolutely been sucked into the 30BAD philosophy... And I'm not sad about it at all - I feel so amazing! Like, waaaay better than before. And I was one of the happiest people I knew before this. Hehe.)

Not only this, but I would like to point out that with the remaining $8, if I felt the need/was able to eat more... I could purchase 16 additional pounds of bananas. That's an additional 6,076 calories! ...about 2 days worth of food, eating the optimal amount of calories per day.

So, in conclusion: This week, I learned that it is *absolutely* possible to thrive on just fruit, on a low/average food budget. However, in future weeks, I do still plan on posting back, on how I am doing and feeling eating this economically sensible high carb fruitarian diet! 

Cost On Fruitarian/LFRV Diet

So, recently, I fell in love with a lady by the name of FreeLee, who runs a website called 30 Bananas A Day, and has multiple YouTube videos where she talks about her diet. This one is definitely my favorite.. I love her no bullshit, not afraid of being politically incorrect style. Aha! Anyhow, she is not actually fruitarian - she eats greens, I don't know about veggies - but she definitely follows a high-fruit diet. A very high-fruit diet.

She promotes a high calorie, high carb, low fat raw vegan diet. 80-10-10.

Her videos convinced me to start cutting avocados and any other fats out of my diet - and oh my goodness, I feel amazing. Can't even put it into words.

However, since I've cut fats out, I find I feel hungry a lot more often - probably because juicy fruits digest so much more quickly than fats. Since I wholeheartedly believe in eating whenever you are hungry, that means eating a greater quantity of food. Like, even more than the large quantity I was eating before.

Well, Pops and I were talking, and they spend $70 - $100 per week on food for me! God, they are so amazing. They don't even wholeheartedly believe in the diet, but they trust me and support me enough that they are willing spend about half of our entire food budget on moi, just so that I'm happy and healthy?

I feel really lucky that Daddy would do that for me - but I also feel so bad. That's a ridiculous amount of money to expect them to spend on just me. So, Papa suggested that we try out giving me a budget of $40 dollars per week for food. It's not a lot - especially when you think about produce prices at the supermarket.... But it's a quarter of what the Dad normally spends on the entire family for groceries in a week.

So, in the following weeks I am going to try living on $40 worth of fruit... And especially finding ways to stretch that $40 into the largest amount of food I can - lots of bananas, I'm thinking...at least until the garden starts producing! Haha.

Everything I Ate This Week//3

So we had to record everything we ate in a week, among some other things, in Human Bio. I actually kind of enjoyed the assignment (though I hate the idea of reducing the foods that I eat to things like calories... That are so commonly regarded as 'evil' by the general public..).

So anyhow, since it didn't take any extra effort on my part, and I s'pose perhaps it might be of interest to somebody... I thought I'd share my paper.

A) Are you athletic?

No.

B) Everything that you ate this week:

(previous to this, I didn't realize just how much a person eats in a week! ..or maybe it's just me.. Hmm. Haha)

• 15 avocados
• 7 or 8 tomatoes
• 4ish cups of dried mango
• 2 cucumbers
• 1 1/2 head kale
• 1 head romaine lettuce
• 1/2 jar green olives
• 1/2 c chilli powder
• 7 bananas
• 4 oranges
• 1 apple
• 11 dates
• 1 1/4 c grapes
• 1 1/4 bag sundried tomatoes
• 2 can olives
• 1 spaghetti squash
• 1 glass OJ

C) How many calories do you burn in a week?

About 1,460 calories in a day; 10,220 calories in a week.

D) How many calories did you consume this week?

9,870.75 (this was odd, because I felt like I must have eaten a lot more than this... And my friend who is raw vegan did an assignment like this a while ago... And she found that she actually eats more than the recommended amount of calories for people of her age, height, and weight.. I dunno. Haha. I also really don't care that much - just eat frsh fruit, that you're hungry for, when you're hungry..and you'll be just fine.

But basically... I was only 400 off the recommended, without trying hard at all - which means that my body must be pretty in tune with what it needs.)

E) What kinds of food should you be eating?

The ideal diet for humans is fruit. 100% delicious, fresh fruit.

Today's Intake//2

• 3 tomato
• 1 cup or so Pineapple
• 3/4(ish) cup dried mango
• Half a wedge of lemon
• Just under a quarter of a squash
• 2 avocado
• 1/4 cup(ish) chili powder

Fresh, Creamy, Noodle-Like Goodness

There's another recipe I want to share. This stuff's delicious, and so simple - I make it all the time.

As always with fruitarian recipes, there are only a few delicious, wholesome ingredients! Here's what you'll need:

• 1 Cucumber
• 1 Tomato
• 1/2 Avocado
• A squeeze of Lemon Juice

Preparation is pretty simple as well:

For the cucumber:

I simply slice it with a julienner, to get nice, perfect sized little cucumber noodles. You could also use a veggie slicer or mandolin, and then the noodles yourself the long way, with a knife.

Note: For a different, more gourmet, thick, and filling (less fresh and light) version, try zucchini in place of cucumber. Prepare same way.

OR make the recipe with raw spaghetti squash. Again it's a different flavor and texture, but still delicious.

Tomato:

Just dice it.

Sundried tomatoes are also good, especially with the zucchini - it adds to the gourmet flavor, I think.

Avocado:

Cut it in half, remove skin, mash it up. Add lemon juice, optional pinch of salt (and other spices if you want) and any other spices you may want to add (I sometimes throw in some chili pepper - It adds to the zucchini, or spaghetti squash version quite nicely).

Assembly:

Just toss everything together in a bowl, mix it up, and enjoy!

Easy, quick, and soo yummy!

Olive Oil

Well, I grew up in a family that loves olive oil. As a kid, we used it on our breadsticks rather than butter. We always cook with oil over any kind of animal fat. I often heard about how good it is for you, how it contains so many vitamins and things that your body needs. Well, it is certainly healthier than butter. But does that mean that it is an ideal component of our diet?

Up until a few weeks ago, I thought so. Then, I saw something on Durianrider's blog. He points out that essentially, eating olive oil is basically pouring pure fat into your body. While I don't completely agree with him about it being 'refined' (It's really as refined as fresh squeezed orange juice, if you think about it), I did think his assertion that it slows you down and makes you more sluggish and kinda just clogs up your system was an interesting one.. I honestly couldn't find a lot of information about it, but I decided to try cutting out olive oil anyhow, just to see if what he said held true.

Well, it's been a few weeks now since I've had olive oil. I find that I need to eat a lot more (makes sense, because I'm not eating all the extra calories from the fat, but other than that - I feel so much more energetic and awake, and just generally more alive. I don't know why this is, and I haven't found any research supporting this really. But I haven't felt the need to add it back to my diet yet, so, though I'm not entirely sure yet, I do think I plan upon removing olive oil permanently from my diet...and I invite anyone else who might be inclined to give this a shot as well.