Trying to eat cooked again.

I love eating 100 percent raw.  However, I was curious to see what would happen if I ate a cooked vegan meal.  Both people who did the trial with me went back to eating pizza and fries and did not feel horrible.  On day 41, I had one of my favorite meals, but it did not taste right at all. It was bland, dull, and seemed to sit so heavy in my stomach.  Before I was halfway through, I felt horrible.  I had a massive headache, I could not seem to drink enough water, my stomach felt horrible, and I broke out in sweats.  I got home and lied on the driveway instead of having to walk all the way inside the house.  I slept fitfully that night, and got up every hour or so.

The next day, I looked a bit like a zombie, black circles under my eyes, I felt horrible still, but I was craving cooked food. I tried eating a little cooked food and my body immediately rebelled again.  It took almost 2 weeks before I could eat cooked food without going to bed right after.

I tried a few variations, eating raw until dinner and then eating 50 percent raw for dinner, or allowing myself to eat cooked vegan foods on the weekend and raw vegan during the week.  None of these worked or me though.  I craved and thought about food all day long.

One of the positive aspects I enjoyed about eating raw was not thinking much about food. On cooked food or only part raw, I thought about food a lot, plan for lunch, snacks, and dinner, what I was in the mood for, and if I should eat out with friends or in.  On raw, when I get hungry, I eat.  I spent a lot more time preparing food though because I enjoys some dehydrated food.

A Girl Note

Up until he next header, I am going to explain some changes for me on a subject that makes some people uncomfortable, so if your one of those people who gets squeamish with regards to “girl” stuff, you may want to skip this section.

Since I was in 8^th grade, I have never had regular periods.  I would skip months at a time.  I would typically have 2 or 3 per year, and while I enjoyed not having to deal with it, it also meant my body was not functioning the way it should.  However, after 41 days on raw, my body became clockwork which I have not had in over 15 years.  Even after trying a few variations of raw foods, my body still stayed on schedule.

Weight, glow, mood, and sleep

At 70 and 80 percent raw, I felt no where near as good as I did not 100 percent raw.  I stopped loosing weight, my face looked reddish, I felt out of sorts, and I could not sleep.

At the end of the raw food trial, I had lost 18 pounds which is totally awesome.  However eating even 2 cooked meals a week, stalled me from losing more weight.  Eating 60-70 percent raw, I began to gain weight again.  I found this one of the most interesting parts of eating raw foods.

Before I moved back to California, I worked out at least 1 hour per day – usually 2- and ate vegan with plenty of fruit and cooked veggies.  However, I did not lose weight.  Without even trying, or working out a ton, I lost weight on raw foods even eating 2 or 3 avocados some days.

Now, back on raw foods 100 percent, I am losing weight again.  Got to love that.

Within a couple days of eating cooked food again, my skin looked bumpy and grainy, and just plain icky.  On raw, my skin cleared up.  This is something I had been working on for years, having tried copious products, and gotten tons of advice, my face still appeared rough, uneven, and blotchy.  It took almost 40 days on raw foods before my face cleared.  Just the one meal on cooked foods, and my face went back to blotchy and irritated.

My mood is typically very high, and my energy is super high.  Raw foods just added to this, but it seemed to be a more pure from of energy.  I had to move round, pace more, get up and dance in the middle of the work day while brain storming to keep myself from exploding with energy.  I wake up with the sun, and by late afternoon, I am ready to knock off doing desk work and do other things.  I go about the day at full speed until bed time.  I go from full speed to be too tired to do anything but sleep in under 10 minutes – probably under 5 minutes.

Typically even, pre raw, pre vegan, I slept very well.  I can typically recall dreams I have had, and I wake up ready to enjoy a new day.  I tend not to sleep much.  For the first couple weeks on raw foods, I slept a ton.  I went from sleeping 4 or 5 hours a night, to sleeping 8.  Upon going from raw to eating some cooked food, I started sleeping 10 plus hours a night.  Now back on raw, my sleep has once again gone back to 4 or 5 hours.

Blood Sugar

Diabetes runs in my family, so it is something I check occasionally.  I have never had any signs or symptoms of it. Throughout the raw food trail and after I have repeatedly checked my blood sugar.  My lowest was 73, my highest was 89.  For me, there is no blood sugar change (maybe my pancreas is working harder, but I cant really measure that easily at home) that I can tell.

Raw Foods and Spacey/ungrounded  Feelings

One of the hardest aspects of raw foods is that I feel very spacey with my head far in the clouds happy to look at the ceiling for hours and think instead of DO anything.  I have gotten lots of feedback on this, everything from eat more food grown close to or in the ground, do weight training, work out more, drink juice, push through it and be productive anyway, ignore it, and other variations of the same things.

I found a couple recipes using more ground/root veggies and have put more of those into my diet.  I found with doing that, all the sudden I craved them like crazy.  I made sweet potato chips, red potato chips, and sweet potato – sprouted buckwheat sticks which I eat 4 or 5 times a day. I don’t notice this helping me feel more grounded but maybe I need to do it longer.

I have been doing a lot of swimming and racquetball as a workout, but I still need to add weight training.  I wanted to do one a time so I could see which one helped the most.

I have made juice quite a few times.  In the past, I have really disliked juice.  Pretty much anything that flavors my water, I am not a fan on.  However, the taste of juice has begun to grow on me so much I am looking into getting a new juicer.  However, so far, juice has not helped me feel more grounded.  Maybe I need to drink more juice, because at most I have a 16oz glass 2 times a week?

I am still looking to resolve this.  Maybe it is just a stage and I need to just accept it and move on.  We shall see.

Pro Con List

So after all these different raw trails…. Here is my short most important Pro/Con list. There are lots of pros that are not as important to me that I did not list (like not needing hand lotion anymore) as well as some cons (spending an extra 20-30 bucks a week on food).

Pro

• More energy
• Less Sleep
• Weight Lose
• Clear Skin
• General Feeling better
• Not getting sick

Con

• Not feeling grounded
• Lots of time on creating meals I want to eat
• Not being able to easily eat out with friends.  ( I am working on learning to do this)

So for me, eating raw is a clear winner.

What am I doing now?

Cooked food never tasted right again, it continued to sit heavy in my stomach even after a few months of playing around with different ways of eating raw.  So, I went back to 100 percent raw vegan.  My goal now, is 100 days raw vegan, then I plan to reassess, but I consider it more of I already made the life style change. At 100 days, I want to celebrate the mark and see what I think of it so far.  Consciously reevaluate to make sure it still works for me, and what I can tweak to make it better (I am thinking a private chef )

Adrienne

The Flu

It turns out the reason I was feeling so bad towards the end was a flu that hit this area pretty bad. It was very virulent and effect 9 of 13 people of programming department at work. It was not a typically flu. It knocked most people off their feet for over a week.

I usually don’t get sick. I may get one cold or flu a year and I often get over it very quickly. I am very ill for about 24 hours then it’s like it never happened. Well, this one hit me hard. Today is the first day I have my voice back. I have been talking in less then a squeak for over 5 weeks.

Does this have anything to do with the detox? Well, I don’t think I will ever know for sure, I may have been more predisposed to it since my body was in a repair mode instead of a fight mode, but I doubt that it has a very strong correlation.

Sleep changes

For the last couple months before the detox, I was sleeping a lot more then normal. At the beginning part of the detox, I was sleeping more then normal but not quite as bad. By about day 7, I was waking up feeling much better. I was hopping this would stick. Unfortunately with the flu I got, I immediately started sleeping 15-18 hours for 4 days straight. I then slept 12 hours a night for 3 weeks. I seem to be getting back in the flow. Last night I slept less then 3 hours, and while I am a little sluggish, I don’t feel like death which is a remarkable improvement.

I am going to focus on eating more salads and smoothies to see if I can keep this benefit.

Last effects of Detoxing

I really don’t feel any different. Part of this maybe because I am still getting over the flu which is why I waited so long to do this update. I do not feel any stronger, lost any weight, feel extra clear headed, or any more productive then usual. For the last couple months, my concentration has been in the dumps but I attributed this more to exhausted and spreading myself too thin.

My concentration is back to where it was months ago which I am appreciating.

I also found that I really enjoy eating smoothies every day. I used to eat them 3 or 4 times a week. But I really like them once or twice a day. I will probably do this even more in the summer.

To detox again or not to detox again?

Well, the people I was doing this with, we decided we would love to do this again; however, we want to do it in the summer were the cold chills wont be so bad and there is a lot more fresh fruit to eat.

Adrienne

The last day of my detox did not go exactly as planned. I still felt kinda bad when I woke up but it was mostly just a cough. I went to about my usual day with included some grocery shopping, errands, and cleaning.

By moon rise, my voice was gone, I had a killer headache, and a 100.9 consistent fever. I felt like I was freezing.

Because I am still under the whether, this is going to be short, but I will write more of a final debrief in a couple of days when I see how this all turns out.

Food

I had a smoothie for breakfast, another smoothie for lunch, and grapes and bananas for dinner. Eating this good actually made me feel a bit better. I still don’t know if my body is actually sick or if this is a consequence of eating black beans on Saturday.

Detox Symptoms

I had a headache most of the day Sunday. I also felt like I could not get a full breath. My skin feels itchy and I have the general blahs. I had better focus, but my mind is still scattered.

Well, technically tomorrow, I can eat whatever I want. Since I am a vegan, I wont be digging into steak or anything, but I really want some food that is not fruits and veggies.

Adrienne

I had a very busy day, laser tag at a my younger cousins birthday party, watching a bunch of screaming kids, trying to keep order, you know – all the stuff that happens at a kids birthday party. I did not eat anything I was not supposed to. I did have some more back beans and around that time, I started to notice it became harder to breath.

Food

I had a shake for breakfast, a couple bananas for lunch, and black beans and rice with tomatoes for dinner. I also had my second smoothie of the day with dinner.

Temperature

This seems to get worse today. I was freezing after I ate the black beans and I stayed that way for hours even in sweats, slippers, and a blanket. My home was set to 70 degrees which is 5 degrees warmer then I usually keep it. I kept getting whole body shivers.

I rarely get sick (usually once a year or less) so it seems weird that I would right now on the tail end of this. But I will keep it as a possibility.

Sleep

I do still seem to be able to get up easier and I feel better when I wake up. I hope I get to keep this as a result of this detox. It was mentioned to me that perhaps the extra sleep is being prompted by a food allergy. I will pay attention and see if as I add food back if I get sleepy.

Detox symptoms

Well I had a headache a good part of the day. I had lots of energy for laser tag. I felt good all day until those black beans.

Well I am feeling pretty crappy now, I am off to bed.

Sunday is the last day!

Adrienne

Friday was another interesting day. I got up right away without any of the usual 10 minutes of brain fog. I noticed I had a headache when I got up and it stuck with me most of the day. I felt ok, but simple tasks seemed overwhelming.

I had lots of energy, but again it was very unfocused.

Food

I decided to stay away from lentils for a couple days since this headache and the fact they didn’t taste good. I had my smoothie for breakfast (I am going through more bananas then I could have imagined). I had a veggie black bean and rice bowl with tomatoes and guacamole. That really hit the spot. I love black beans and I was very happy to add them back into my diet.

I had the fish fry at my firehouse until after 10pm, so I ended up getting home late. It was weird to not even be able to have a french fry at the fish fry. I had my smoothie at around 11:30pm. It had no stomach or gastrointestinal issues with drinking it that late, it was more an issue of all the water that goes into to the smoothie must come out. I was trying to sleep and ended up waking up 3 times to use the restroom.

Detox Symptoms

I had a headache low grade but the worst one I have had yet on this detox all day. I wonder if it had to do with adding the lentils back. It started about 10 minutes after I ate the lentils. The headache was always there, I couldn’t block it out, but it was not too bad.

My tongue was really white again. It took lots of scrubbing for it to look nice and pink, and only a couple of hours for my body to make it white again.

My focus issues are still a major problem. I find myself stopping in complete sentences to contemplate something completely irrelevant. I wonder if this is my body’s way of getting in some mental R and R. I tend to tax my mind a lot; so maybe it is just a mental unleashing as well. I do notice I get some strong emotions without a reason. Mostly, I need to be outside and free. Outside just seems so much better then indoors.

I cant wait to see how many of these changes continue after this program is over. Only 2 more days!

Adrienne

Thursday was an interesting day. I woke up refreshed and awake without the usual forcing myself out of bed. Even though I am often excited about my day, in the morning, I drag. About 10 minutes after I get out of bed, I am fine, but those initial 10 minutes are hard. Yesterday, I got up without any problems and felt wide awake without my 10 minute lag. I would really like this to continue.

The benefit of waking up without wanting to throw my phone (I use my phone as an alarm clock) is awesome.

Going to sleep was a different matter. I got tired early, around 10pm. I went to bed and my body was ready for sleep, but my brain just wanted to meander in thought. My brain wondered for over an hour before I finally fell asleep.

Food

I ate what is becoming a typical breakfast and lunch. For dinner, I had my smoothie and lentils. I don’t know what it was, but the lentils didn’t taste anywhere near as good as they tasted a couple weeks ago. I even mixed them with fresh spinach which is my favorite way to eat them. They also felt very heavy in my stomach and about 10 minutes after eating them I got a low level headache. It was the worst one that I have had while on this detox. I think I may stay away from lentils for a while longer.

Face

The skin on my face seems softer, less blotchy, and less irritated. I had not really noticed, but for a while, the skin on my face was getting redder in spots. My face today actually is so pale, I may be a ghost.

I got a glance of myself when I walked by a mirror, and it was odd. My face is pale, my eyes are dark and still red, and the skin around my eyes seems almost black against the paleness of the rest of my face. Wonder what I have to do to make the black do away?

Detox symptoms

Except for the lentil headache, I seemed to do pretty well. My focus is still nonexistent. I don’t think I could stay focused on a train if it was heading right for me. I also still feel this strong draw to be outside. Sometimes when I am inside, I start feeling violent like I need to punch through the walls to get outside as fast as possible.

My mind seems to be happiest recently when it is wondering. Even in its wondering, it is unfocused. Normally when my mind wonders, it has a focus, a day dream, a project, code I am debugging, etc. But now, its my mind is just off in space floating around taking in what looks interesting for as long as it does then moving on.

I am actually enjoying the lack of focus and wondering brain. Yes, it makes doing anything extremely difficult, but it feels great to notice so many things. To be so aware of everything around me is awesome. I notice this also comes with large amounts of emotion that I can’t explain like frustration, or anger, and sometimes just plain old happy.

Only 3 days left!

Adrienne

I still noticed that I was pretty easily distracted. Sounds, movement, my own brain, anything could throw me off of what I was doing. I felt like all I wanted was veggie pizza and to day dream for hours. I would have loved to just lay out in nature somewhere and watch the clouds, or feel or rain or watch the stars. I felt very confined being in doors all day. I felt like the indoors was smothering me. I even went outside and just stood in the rain for a while, and it felt like the earth steadied under me for a few minutes.

I love spending time in nature and outdoors, but it seems my desire to be out in it is expanding.

Maybe tonight if it is raining, I will take a nice long walk in the rain.

Food

Smoothie for breakfast, grapes, carrots, veggie soup, and roasted veggies for lunch and dinner was smoothie, avocado and tomato salad with balsamic vinegar, and red potatoes. I noticed I got hungry a little earlier then usual after my morning smoothie. But it was a different hunger. Normally, my stomach tells me to eat, but this was more a whole body thing. It was stronger, but significantly easier to ignore for a few minutes will I finished stuff up.

Yesterday, my big craving was for red grapes and red potatoes. I wonder why my food cravings come in colors.

Temperature

I managed to take my temperature during one of my cold spells that lasted about 30 minutes. It was 93.1. It is no wonder I was freezing. This was about 45 minutes after I had eaten my dinner. I had a couple really hot moments yesterday as well, but I was not around a thermometer to be able to see how hot I was really getting.

I took my temperature about 30 minutes later when I had warmed up and felt comfortable. It was 97.6.

Face

For the last 3 or 4 days my eyes have had a lot of goo in them. I wash them out in the shower and the next day there is more goo. My eyes are also red and can be quite itchy sometimes. Usually once I get the goo out they are much better until later that day. I find myself even cleaning them out when I wash my face at night.

My face is still blotchy and occasionally itchy. I am hoping this will resolve itself soon.

Detox symptoms

I had a couple low grade headaches through out the day. Again, they were so low grade they barely registered.

My tongue is still white. I still brush it, but now it seems to take longer to come back – usually over night.

My focus was virtually non existent, but I had high energy. It was an odd combination.

Tomorrow I get to start eating lentils again! Lentils are one of my favorite foods, so I am looking forward to having it for dinner. These next couple days I get to start reintroducing some foods back.

Adrienne

The day flew by, I got 3 programs debugged (which were not even working in the first place), a dent made in my inbox, a blog post made, a couple hours of web programming done for the fire station, and even managed to clean up a bit.

I will say this most frustrating thing about this has been going to the grocery store every day. It is not really a planning a head issue. It is a cravings issue. Tuesday I was craving white, red and brown food. The brown I was wanting was lentil, but I still have until Thursday before I can explain my list of foods. I did get to eat lots of red and white though.

Temperature

I took my temperature 2 times yesterday. I waited a couple hours after dinner. I waited until I was neither hot nor cold. I do seem to be doing better with being too hot or too cold. My first reading was 99.1 which is a low grade fever for me. I waited about 45 minutes and took it again. I was down to 98.1. During this time, I had no hot or cold issues, but this really shows that my body temperature is jumping all over the place.

Food

I had my smoothie for breakfast. Veggie soup, carrots and grapes for lunch. I was very happy to see that my veggie soup today actually tasted good. I keep craving grapes especially when I am thirsty. I will drink some water and drink some more but only a handful of grapes quenches my thirst.

For dinner I was very happy to see my red smoothie (red from the strawberries). I had another salad. Also very good. But I could myself still found myself wanting something hardier. I made roasted veggies with lots of red potatoes and onions and carrots. It hit the spot.

Detox symptoms

I had only a fleeting headache for a few minutes. My nose only had to be blown 3 times. My brain could actually think. It was an awesome day.

Adrienne

I was actually productive Monday night instead of thinking about going to bed all night.

Food

Well this was an interesting food day. I had my smoothie for breakfast. Lunch was veggie soup which sounded good, until I put it in my mouth. My body really did not want that. I took a couple more bites and my body was really against it. I ended up eating some carrots and brown rice with some veggies and was much happier for it.

For dinner I had a smoothie and a salad. I used straight balsamic vinegar for the dressing and added some lettuce, tomato, and avocado. It really hit the spot.

I still have some veggie soup left, so I am thinking I may try it again.

Temperature

I still had some trouble with the hot cold thing yesterday. If I sat down and did little movement I was very cold, but even just standing up made me boiling hot.

A couple hours after dinner, when I was not hot or cold, I took my temperate and I was at 98.3 which is a tad warm for me, but I was comfortable.

Detox symptoms

I am happy to report, I did not have any low grade headaches yesterday. My runny nose dried up a bit and I had more energy. By the end of the day, I was actually able to concentrate on something.

I had no cravings for other food. I did notice that my fingers were a bit weak. I had to open a bottle top which I can normally open with minimal swearing and yesterday it felt much more difficult.

Well, Tuesday is day 5 and that will put me at halfway!!

Adrienne

I have been a little lax in my work out schedule while I do this especially since right before I started I went on a 15 mile hike to look at froze waterfalls. I really have not noticed any physical fatigue, it is definitely more mental. My brain is foggy and tired and slow to respond.

These last couple months my brain has been overly taxed (this has come from about five years at running at full speed without a break) with how much I have been on the go. It has been threatening to make me stare at a wall for a few hours, so it could have some downtime even before I started this. Even though I am resting more, I just seem to want to rest more.

My energy seems to be a little unfocused and chaotic. One moment all I want to do is lie in bed and stare at the stars and the next I am full of energy and want to dance around the house… and I did for 2 hours. Then everything seemed insanely dirty and I started cleaning, but about 30 minutes into it, I had lost my energy and again wanted to lay down which I did. Lying down did not help as much as I would have liked. My body was not really tired, it was more mental and I could not figure out what to do to rest my brain.

Sleep

I have been sleeping just fine. I have not had any problems going to sleep or staying a sleep but I rarely have issues like that. Last night I did not sleep much, froze most of the night, and could not get comfortable. This is pretty typical when I am on call and sleep at the fire station. The captain’s room has lots of windows and when it is cold outside, the room freezes. What is not so typical is usually after a night like that, I don’t feel like I need to lay down. Usually Monday mornings after being up and saving lives in the cold most of the night, I am tired.

I am usually mentally taxed from given orders, piles of paperwork, helping people, and seeing the kinds things EMTs tend to see. I always have to remind myself why I volunteer Monday morning as I dragging myself around trying to get ready for the day

I am usually physically taxed from all the lifting, getting into interesting positions, and lack of rest. We will see how Monday turns out, but so far I am not as physically exhausted as I am on a Monday morning.

Warm and Cold

I still can’t seem to keep my temperature right. I seem to go back and forth between hot and cold faster then I can put on a sweatshirt and take it off. My hands seem to be especially vulnerable to the cold and I usually don’t have an issue with cold hands. This is very annoying; I suddenly understand how people with hot flashes feel.

I am trying to just accept this as something my body needs to do and not be put out every time I get a chill. I am curious to see if my core body temp is being altered. I typically run a little cool, normal for me being around 97.8 to 98.0. I used to run even cooler but I started warning up in the last couple years.

Food

I am very pleased to say that yesterday, I was not hollow. I ate and actually got full and did not feel the need to eat the refrigerator after an 18 course meal .

It was the first day I was tempted to eat something I am not supposed to. On a scale of 1 to 10, I was about a 3. I have been at a 1 which means I am just enjoying what I am eating, but not really craving anything I could not eat.

I think the reason for this is because I was with my crew at the station, and we were cooking and I couldn’t eat it. Usually we have a good time cooking and eating together, but this time I could not fully take part in the ritual. After, they were done eating, I was back to feeling like a 1 again.

Breakfast was another banana and strawberries smoothie with the powder. I felt full for a while and later for a snack had some brown rice with roasted sweet potato, onion, and carrot with steamed broccoli on top.

By the time lunch came, I was craving green food. I had another smoothie and followed it up with lettuce wraps with avocado, tomato, and onion. It tasted clean, fresh, good, and really hit the spot.

About an hour later, I was still craving green, so I made veggie soup and had a bowl before I headed to the station. Just like Saturday, I didn’t feel like eating after 4. Even when my crew made food, my taste buds wanted it, but my body went, are you CRAZY?

Detox symptoms

I was still plagued by this running nose. It seemed to lighten up again towards late afternoon.

I had a very white tongue all day. I would brush it until it was pink again, and an hour later, it was white.

I noticed a couple low grade headaches through out the day, but they were very minimal. I had to focus on them to even see if they were there.

Day 3 has come to end, let’s see what day 4 brings!

Adrienne