The Road to Raw Food

Yes folks.  I've entered the twilight zone of raw food.  I never thought my healthy eating would go this far but when you spend most of every day in fear of eating something that will make you sick, you are willing to give anything a try.

I've tried the raw food thing once before but I jumped in without a life vest so to speak and nearly drowned in  dehydrating techniques, juicing without a juicer (do not try this at home-you will never eat celery again) and spending too much time soaking and rinsing things that I had never even heard of before.

Perhaps I should explain what the raw food lifestyle is for those of you who are fortunate enough to have never been lured into this cult like way of preparing and eating food.  Raw foodists believe that in order to receive all the nutrients and enzymes that the body needs food must not be heated over a certain temperature (no more than 120 degrees F although there is not an across the board agreement on this). There are other things involved as well, such as how food is prepared, what food to eat, etc.  For most of us who have a hard enough time trying to cook a tv dinner in the microwave without burning it, living a raw food lifestyle would be a real pain in the ass. And that's an understatement.

But when my health started to get bad again I thought I would take another stab at eating raw. This time though I decided to stick my toes in first before immersing myself.  And boy am I glad I did.  Yesterday was my first day and I couldn't believe how easy it was.  First of all, I simply added some raw foods to my meals.  Last night for dinner we had cooked (yeah, that's right-cooked, at a steamy 375 degrees no less) salmon with cooked rice and my now favorite salad of all time..... zucchini salad with sun dried tomatoes!  It was freaking delicious and ridiculously easy to make.  It took me all of ten minutes.  


I used two small zucchinis, a small handful of baby carrots, same for the sun dried tomatoes (Trader Joe's has them now not soaked in oil-fantastic!), 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil and of apple cider vinegar, a dab of crushed garlic, basil, oregano, salt and pepper to taste.  


I used a vegetable peeler to slice up the zucchinis lengthwise into strips and placed them in a small bowl.  I shredded the carrots with a cheese grater and cut up the sun dried tomatoes into little bits.  I mixed it all together with the oil, vinegar, garlic and herbs and voila!  It was that easy!  Then I let it sit in the fridge for a couple of hours. It was so good I would've just had that as my dinner and been satisfied.

Not only did I have this wonderful dish but I made a cucumber "soup" too.  I took one large cucumber, 1/2 avocado, 1/2 cup water, a dab or two of minced red onion (this was very strong tasting initially but subsided after sitting in the fridge for a couple hours) salt and pepper to taste and blended it all together in the blender.  Just like that I had soup.  It was very refreshing.  

I should suggest using only organic produce when making these dishes not just for health factors but taste too. I used cucumber and avocado from our local corner store--not organic.  The cucumber tasted like sweaty socks and most of the avocado was rotting inside. It did taste better once blended and since I was just testing things out (and maybe would've been throwing it out too if it didn't come out well) I figured no harm done.  Next time will for sure be organic.  

So raw food can be done my friends even for those of us who get turned off at the thought of having to  wield a vegetable peeler. The plus side is I don't feel full and tired.  I feel satiated and less tired.  Maybe going forward I will feel energized.  Only time will tell.

I'm looking forward to lunch! The menu calls for spinach salad with homemade curry dressing.  Mmmm.....

The Learning Part Is the Hardest Part

Am I the only one who finds it difficult to learn life lessons?  I was never that good in school but I always thought I at least had some street smarts.  It seems, however, that when it comes to life lessons I feel as though I'm back in my 7th grade math class again just scratching my head and squinting. You see, if you squint the teacher thinks you are trying diligently to solve the equation when in actuality you are simply saying in your head, "For the love of god please don't call on me!"

Lately, well actually for the past six or more years it seems my life has been filled with lessons for me to learn and I don't know if I really completely comprehend any of them. Perhaps it is one big lesson of letting go and not trying to figure every little thing out.  But I digress...welcome to my blog!  Yes, it will be filled with meandering thoughts that fill my brain every waking minute that are sometimes enlightening and other times nonsensical. Welcome to my world.  My hope is that you will get something out of it whether it is a feeling of, "okay, I'm not the only one who thinks these things or has these experiences," to "wow, this chick is f 'd up. Glad my life isn't that bad," or even just using my outpourings to help you fall asleep at night.    

I have been trying to come up with a good story type opener for my first blog but am feeling a bit lost lately and have been ping ponging in my head what topic to touch on.  So tonight will be about feeling lost.  I am well equipped for this since being unemployed for over a year and a new mom have thrown me into places that are completely unfamiliar to me.  

What does it feel like to be lost?  It is exactly like being in the middle of the woods at sunset and having spent every ounce of energy retracing your steps to see where you veered off the trail and all hope is gone to ever find it again.  Oh, and you've eaten the last bag of trail mix and ran out of water hours ago.  It's that initial burst of panic when you realize you are completely alone and very ill equipped to survive in the woods at night. 

In terms of being lost in life that panic is there every single day and night and there's no sign to help you get back to where you once were. It's when you are so stuck in your life that you can't see the forest through the trees.  So you plug along like a beaten dog following its master in hopes of one day getting a scratch behind the ears. You can try to change things up a bit.  Perhaps take a different path that will lead you back home, but I've found that it usually just leads you somewhere else.  

Home is defined as, "a social unit formed by a family living together; a place of origin; a familiar or usual setting." Interesting that "family" and "familiar" are so similar.  Family is familiar so does familiarity create a family?  I think so.  Speaking of family, I am going to see my family this Thursday.  They will be meeting my son for the first time.  Maybe once I'm there, I won't feel quite so lost.  Maybe the familiarity of my family will bring me home. 

I would like to end each blog with an offering of gratitude so tonight, although I am lost in the woods (metaphorically speaking....please don't call 911) I am grateful to have the sky above me and the ground beneath me. Tomorrow is another day to find my way back home.

Thanks for listening,
N