Thermidor or 7 days without apple makes one weak

It was a while since my last post and about a week since I started to write this one, so I'll rewrite it from scratch.

Last week was so busy, didn't even have time to sleep.

And last version of this post was starting as "And now half of another week is gone and I almost didn't notice it."

So previous week was crazy as well. :)

The week before last one, everything was good and bright :)

Another quote from previous version:

"Saturday and Sunday went pretty good. On Saturday I was parting and came home around 3am, next morning I had yoga class. So I was pretty lucky that police shut the party down, and I made it home not so late :)

Sunday was pretty powerful, I had 2 hours of yoga and 6 hours of climbing after that. And felt very good."

But then it started weird.

General weakness, numbness in the fingertips and nose bleeding.

So I went to doctor and asked for blood test and general check up. On blood test I faded :) And Tuesday and Wednesday I was forcing myself to just walk, don't speak of running stairs or anything like that.

As for my diet it was pretty much the same tomatoes, sweet peppers, a lot of fruits. And I started to sprout. Had huge craving for nuts but couldn't find anything raw around.

On Wednesday I found some shelled hazelnuts and I liked the taste,but my body didn't really like the feeling. So I soaked them for a night and next morning they were much softer and felt better for my body.

Sunday morning I got first lentil sprouts, I had them for breakfast and then I had 5K run (Achilles St. Patrick), in the begging of teh run it felt like I would die there :) But then I noticed that I still run with same speed as first guys, so I continue to run. And I finished in 21 minute, that was better then I expected for myself.

Then I had raw pistachios that I bought on Friday in Ambrosia (Steels and Yonge, very nice store with a lots of raw stuff). Although my body didn't like them at all and had to go to bathroom many times that day and I felt something like fever. By that time I counted it as post-run conditions. So I eat some of them on Monday with same results. Then I soaked them overnight, and Tuesday morning they turned into messy stuff. After googling it I found out that pistachios are processed with high temperature as well as cashews.

"Pistachios are hulled and dried within 24 hours of harvest. Rosengarten reports that the nuts are dried using heated air, at 150-160 degrees F"

So no more pistachios. Peanuts on other hand I bought in same store are very soft and nice with my body especially after soaking them overnight.

As for my blood test results that I got on Monday – they said that I have too much protein in my body :) I didn't consume any supplements for about a month on blood test day (except that left over of multivitamins, but it doesn't have protein in it). I'll do another one in a month and we'll see.

This week was much better in terms of feeling, I still feel weak, but I'm kinda used to it :) And have huge craving for bread :) Who can imagine I wasn't bread-eat for last few years :)

Yesterday I had chick peas sprouts for lunch, I liked the taste and feeling, and have three jars sprouting in my kitchen now with lentils, chick peas and kidney beans.

So overall everything is ok now, kind of strange lightness and weakness, but I think it's just my body transforming to something new, we'll see.

Stay tuned.

Social Nuts

Good Friday morning :)

It's strange that in the morning I feel myself a little bit faded until I eat something. This morning I decided to try just water. We'll see. I don't understand this process but it seems for me only a mental thing.

Let's start from the routine – I had apples for lunch on Wednesday, it felt as I got home after long rip and my mom made her best dish for me, it felt so natural, so that I used to. And in same time it was harder to tell myself that apples could be a meal, not just snack. So mental stuff is very important when you do that kind of experiments.
Then on my way to yoga class I bought 170g of blueberries – they tasted goood :)

For I had half of watermelon, I ate with a spoon :) It was just a fest! :)
And other half I had for breakfast :)

Some baby carrots for second breakfast and strawberries for lunch.
And then Vadik and I went to Raw Meetup gourp event hosted in Rawlicious. Where I realized that raw-mono diet leave no social life for you. Or make it in unusual way. Everything was fun and nice and then we started ordering food :)

In Rawlicious they make very nice and good looking dishes. And I felt somewhat terrible to ask the owner for just bowl of walnuts :) I felt as full as other by the end of the dinner. So in terms of food it was ok, but it seems strange to go out to have some walnuts for 6 bucks :)

Also there I've heard new name – Pummelo, so decided to try it, on my way back home I bought it. So My late snack was pummelo, didn't know that it would be so hard to peel. And I felt myself as first human being on the planet, trying new thing and who doesn't know what he supposed to eat of this fruit :) First I tried to eat the that white stuff under the skin, but it was disgusting :) so I peeled a little bit more and then more and then even more. And in 10 minutes of peeling and trying I found stuff similar to grapefruit. :) It was ok, but as for me it doesn't worth peeling it. :)

And this morning it's just water. :) Actually I already feel better :)

As for my stats – I still run stairs in the subway. And my weight is 132 lbs. So I lost 10 lbs in 11 days. Pretty interesting statistics. :)

Ok, another day ahead and for today I have tangerines for second breakfast, avocados for lunch and yellow peppers for second lunch. I was going to have pomegranate, but couldn't find it in my Loblaws.

And I have couple links to share:

- First one is about different nuts and how they are processed and whatnot. So cashews and pecans are always processed even if they say they're raw:
http://www.living-foods.com/articles/nuts.html

And second one is a blog with before-after photos of raw-fooders, just to get the idea:
http://www.welikeitraw.com/rawfood/raw-food-before-and-after-photos.html
(And they didn't go so hardcore as raw-mono, just salads and stuff)

Have a good day,
and see you later.

Cashews vs. Endurance

Another three days went by, just didn't have time to write anything :)

First of all I'm still on track. :)

And I've got more endurance – on Sunday climbed for seven hours, yesterday about five hours, and managed to climb 11c in the end of the day.

I had three parties over the weekend. It was fun thank you to my friends for having me.
And go back to my diet – first party on Saturday evening – I just drank water, yes, it was strange.
But then I went to a birthday party and just brought watermelon with me. Everybody was so happy about it :)
And it was my dinner. I felt pretty good, slept well.

Sunday night I went to a housewarming party after seven hours of climbing, felt a little bit tired.
I brought three pineapples with me. Actually two would be enough.
And now I know how to slice a pineapple. :)

I'm not so experienced in any fruit/veggie slicing, before I used to buy everything already peeled and sliced. :)
So it's good thing to know. And last night Vadik told me how to peel mangoes.
I'm getting stuff to my own "recipe" book. :)

And ya, I had about pound of cashews for lunch on Saturday, and I had cashews for lunch on Monday, and then I found out that all cashews that we can buy are not live, I mean not raw, they are processed right on a plant.

Unless you happen to work in a cashew plant or pick cashew apples, it’s unlikely you’ll encounter completely raw cashews. The so-called raw cashews sold in natural food stores are not exactly raw, but instead are steamed. It is the case that the double shell surrounding the raw cashew, which is technically a seed and not a nut, contains urushiol, a resin that can create significant skin rashes, and can be toxic when ingested.
http://www.wisegeek.com/are-raw-cashews-really-poisonous.htm

So no more cashews for me :)

And then I found out that pecans are processed as well, didn't find a link to any material yet, so it's not a fully proved fact. Stay tuned for more investigations about that.

And buckwheat that we have in a store is roasted, so it's not live culture either.

As they say the best way to check if it's live culture or not is to try to sprout it.
Now I put my pecans in the water to see if they can sprout.

For dinner on Monday I had bananas, Tuesday breakfast was tangerines, Tuesday lunch was tomatoes and then tangerines again. Forgot to mention sweet peppers for first lunch on Monday.

Oh ya, I usually have two lunches per day – first one at noon and second one around 3-4pm.
And for dinner I had pears. They were very helpful to five hours of climbing. I felt rejuvenated after each pear.

And last night Vadik brought Mangoes, he said they are the best mangoes ever, so I'll try.

Need to mention I felt kind of weak on Monday and Tuesday, but still I ran the stairs in the Subway, so it's a strange combination of weakness and increased endurance.

Hard to make any conclusions yet, because my body is still in a transition period so everything could happen. And as I remember from my other experiments transition periods can be really weird :)

Ok, Wednesday morning, I have mangoes for breakfast, and probably I will buy apples for lunch.

So bottom line – It's 9th day and I feel amazing, lightweight and powerful.

Stay tuned.

Fifth day

Couple days went by pretty fast.

I didn't have any kind of craving, only once when I went to a convenience store to buy some oranges for lunch,
I smelled bread. It was a completely new sensation for me, I remember that I used to like the smell of bread, but this time it was something really amazing. :)

As I realized later my sense of smell became very accurate.
And the taste of food became more colorful for me, for example tomatoes which I had for dinner on Thursday were something truly delicious, and before I started this experiment I didn't really like veggies at all. We'll see what happens next.

So as my diet – on Thursday I had bananas for breakfast, buckwheat for lunch, tomatoes - dinner, and a couple of bananas before I went to bed. And on Thursday I felt really weak and fading. And I missed the Vegan Rock event because of work, so I didn't have a chance to test myself with vegan treats :)

Friday was much better in terms of how I felt. And as for the diet – I missed the breakfast,
I had late one in the office around 11am. I bought a bag of baby carrots. And probably I ate too much of them (it was like a pound or something) :) I had some uncomfortable feeling in my stomach till Saturday morning.
And the two oranges were more than enough for late lunch (around 3-4pm). Then on my way from work I bought half a pound of raw cashews.

Later that night I went to Richmond Hill to my sister's home and I ate two boxes of blueberries (after midnight)
and I felt really fresh and nice this morning. And I even run the stairs in subway on my way back home :)
Oh, I forgot to mention a couple pears that made me feel strong which I had around 7am.

And now I'm going to the health store to buy more nuts and whatnot.

And one more thing - I lost one pound since Tuesday, so now I'm 136 pounds.

Stay tuned.

A.I.

Ready, Steady, Go!

Somewhat suddenly I decided to try raw vegan diet.
I read some stuff about this topic, and before it seemed to me like something unnatural and unnecessary to do.

But yesterday, something changed inside me, and the idea to try it myself became most the reasonable thing.

And one more thing, I found one guy who is doing separate meals, which means that he eats only one kind of food per meal.
So I decided to try it as well.

And yesterday I started my day with bananas, I ate three of them. I'm still finishing my multi-vitamin while it lasts,
and then will be going without any kind of supplements. Right now it's like transition period. We'll see.

For lunch I bought like 1/2lb of raw cashews they were pretty tasty,
and I didn't feel any hunger till the end of the work day.

Then on my way to the cinema I bought four pears, ate two of them at once and felt good.
Than I shared one of the pears with friend of mine after the movie. So I had three pears (small ones) in total.

And I wasn't hungry.

But the evening was kind of spoiled by my sister :) She makes the best guacamole ever.
So I couldn't resist having several spoons of it after midnight :)
And finished the rest of it this morning.

I still consider this to be a raw diet, although not separated, but it's only the transition period. :)

Couple hours later I ate two bananas and took three more to the office.
Ate two of them upon arrival to the office and last one in a couple hours after lunch.

On my way to work I bought four kiwi (and it was less than two bucks) – they were my lunch.
And they were so fulfilling I even shared one of them with a friend of mine.

On my way to yoga class I made another step aside. :)

In the one of the Toronto Vegetarian Podcast they talked about Liquid Nutrition cafe. It sounded like something very good. Despite the fact I take Queen streetcar to work almost everyday I noticed that cafe only today. So I decided to stop by and try something from them.

It should be pretty good for vegetarians, but not for people like me. :) So I bought a smoothie there – banana, orange, mango, and it was gooood. :)

After yoga class I bought a pack of raw cashews and shared them again, I mean I like to share food, but my point is that I ate even less and it still was pretty fulfilling.

I know, it's not enough time to make any decisions, but it's end of the second day and I feel very good.

Right now I'm finishing this post and bowl of grapes.

And life seems to be amazing again :)

Oh, and tomorrow I'm going to Vegan Rock, and I was looking forward for vegan treats but from now I can't eat them. :) So it would be nice challenge .

I'll tell you tomorrow how was it.

Have a good and healthy day.

A.I.