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(almost) Raw Day

June 18, 2008 – 8:20 pm

Today I decided to eat only raw for a day. So I set off to work with a basket full of fruit and veg. I had to eat a lot of volume to stay full, that is, to keep my tummy from rumbling. (I think that would be the hardest part about getting used to raw: you’d have to get over the empty feeling all the time.) But, aside from a couple of itty-bitty unforseeables, I did it. Here’s what I ate:

• breakfast raw smoothie containing:
  • 1/2 avocado
  • 1 large handful of lettuces and chard (from garden)
  • 1 banana
  • 1 handful of strawberries (from garden)
  • 1 hunk of cucumber
• Grazed throughout workday on:
  • bowl of lettuce with a half avo. Dressing was not raw because I forgot to bring it and all I had at work was Drew’s Shiitake Sesame
  • handful of grapes
  • handful of carrots with liquid aminos spritzed on them
  • orange
  • apple
• For supper we went to a potluck, to which we brought salad from our garden
  • salad from garden
  • Kate’s asian slaw. This was mostly raw, except for the crunched up ramen noodles sprinkled on.
  • watermelon
• For dessert
  • my own raw vegan strawberry pie

I learned a several things, including: a) you have to eat a lot, often. You’re hungry. Fruit doesn’t stick around for long in the belly. The avocado helped somewhat. But I ate all day. b) you pee a lot. I drank less than my normal water quota, and was peeing way more than usual, and I already pee a lot. c) it was a yummy, crunchy, fresh day. I felt/feel vital. d) I set a record for number of fruit/veg servings in a day – 15! I’m prolly gonna poop all day tomorrow. e) Raw would suck in winter. f) by my calculations, I ate roughly the same number of calories I normally do. But way more volume.

The major slip-up of the day was that I had forgotten that our department was bringing in a cake to celebrate June birthdays today. If this had been just any old cake, I would have gladly passed it up. But this was cake from the oh-so-wonderful vegan bakery in town, Fairgrounds Coffeehouse. To pass up one of Christina’s creations is sacrilege. It was a modest slice of 100% vegan lemon-blueberry- with-lemon-frosting-so-moist-you-hardly-have-to-chew perfection. How often does one encounter perfection in a day? To hell with Raw, I’m having cake.