The One Month RAW Challenge

[mtmouse]

Just had some now, rain! Had the first sip straight, then watered down the rest and chugged a glass, LOL.

I have a long morning routine so never eat breakfast until at least 10:00. Today I got derailed by a snafu at the bank and so I was running later than usual. But now I'm on board! Still just enjoying the OJ and feeling no particular desire for any real food. This is so unlike me I can hardly believe it, LOL.

And my official weight this morning: 144.5! So it's still dropping, which is great. I always like to get as low as possible so the inevitable 3-5 pounds that comes back on still ends up with me in a good place. I'm just feeling great all around this morning!

[Bogi]

Thank you Kathy and Rain, I found the red dragon, both version. No time to search for the rosemary ones, but that isn't that important anyway, I'll come up with soemthing myself I guess.
Really hungry here, time to go and get some OJ.
Btw, I've lost and other half pound on the first day of juice. Isn't life great?

[mtmouse]

I just realized: I went a whole 30 days without a bathroom accident! I think that's a first among my cleanses, LOL.

But I almost marred my perfect record today. Since of course I'm now done with the SWF (yay!), I wasn't expecting any "movement" until at least tomorrow or the next day. However, I forgot that I decided to have one last glass of tea last night! I didn't have to go this morning and it just slipped my mind.

So while out on errands today, I was quite surprised to realize I was going to have to get somewhere fast! Luckily I was able to make it to my next stop, which conveniently had a bathroom close by. Whew! I don't expect to have to deal with that stuff when I'm not cleansing, LOL.

[mtmouse]

Oh my goodness!

My first quart today was watered-down OJ. I had to toss so much pulp!

But then my second quart I added grapefruit juice, and I watered it down much less. Yum, was that good! I normally don't like grapefruit juice that much, but mixed (about 1:3) with the OJ (and after 30 days of lemonade, LOL), it's divine.

And, still thinking about my nori rolls, I made some pickled ginger today! I used Sim's wonderful recipe. However, I made it quick and dirty! Since I got my Vita-Mix, I no longer peel ginger, just wash it well and remove any dry or discolored parts. And when I last did the pickled ginger, I tried to shave it like the sushi ginger, but it wouldn't work right. So I painstakingly cut it into tiny julienne strips (part with the mandoline, but part had to be done by hand).

So this time I decided I'd just do a pickled ginger paste, that I could simply spread onto my nori rolls. So I modified the recipe to get the beet-raisin water, then threw everything into the VM. Since the original recipe calls for the ginger to sit in the pickling water, it was really liquidy, so I strained it until it was quite pasty and put that into a jar. I took one little taste and it's already terrific! (You're supposed to wait four days for it.)

And my mac nut cheese is ready too! (If only I were, LOL.) Again, one little lick of that and I pronounced it done and put it in the fridge. It's pretty mild and should be marvelous on my red dragon crackers.

Ah, so near and yet so far! LOL.

[Bogi]

I'm starving. Like seriously. I made thru the day very well with orange juice. After gym I went to my new fave organic store where I bought some more oranges and raw, naturallly fermented dill pickles (cucumber)! I haven't had any since I'm raw (10 mo) and I've been craving it for days! (No, Im not pregnant) I got home, and I had to eat one. It's been 4 hours and it doesn't bother my stomach. But now I'm soooo hungry I can't sleep! I think I have to eat one more.
Tomorrow I try to drink more orang juice. I'm afraid to gain back the weight what I lost, so I try not to eat yet, although I think my stomach is ready.
Oh, pickles...
Never heard of pickled ginger.

[mtmouse]

Bogi,

Ever eaten Japanese food or sushi? They almost always serve pickled ginger with it. Yum!

I'm glad I haven't been grabbed with great hunger yet. Yesterday I started off my day with watered-down OJ, then later went to almost-full-strength OJ and grapefruit juice. Then later I added some watermelon juice.

At that point the watermelon looked so good that I also had a tiny sliver of it straight. Well, my stomach immediately began gurgling and I started burping, so that was enough to let me put it back in the fridge and hold off for a while. But man, did I want it! Not from hunger, but just because I love watermelon and it tasted so good!

But are you eating enough? In one day I went through 6 pounds of oranges, 3 grapefruits, and a big piece off the end of the watermelon. And my weight is still dropping. Don't let fear of gaining cause you to starve yourself, because that will backfire very quickly!

[Bogi]

Oh, Kathy, I drink tremendous amount of orange juice (straight)! Yesterday I drank at least 60 oz, then 10 oz cucumber/celery juice. It's not that I was hungry when I had the first pickle, it was just craving! Eating that one small piece of solid food turned my apetite back I think, because a few hours later I was really hungry. But eating and other half pickle was enough. My stomach was absolutely fine, no grumbling, no discomfort and no more hunger. I wanted to buy some watermelon yesterday for dinner, but they asked 20 bucks for a valley ball size organic melon! (I could eat it with one sitting)
I sqeezed about 40 oz juice this morning, I already done with the half of it (it's not even 11 am). I'm getting tired of it though, but it's the 3rd day, so I can pull it off. Do you think it's ok if I try to eat a salad for dinner? Or should I just go with a some raw veggie soup kind of thing? I need to have something salty, it was enough of the fruits!

I don't like sushi, maybe that's why I don't know about pickled ginger. Even nori sheet tastes to "fishy" for me!

[Bogi]

I found the ritz cracker recipe:
http://rawfoodtalk.com/showthread.ph...=ritz+crackers
It call for hemp seeds, too, I don't remeber ever seeing it any health food store. I think I just use flax seeds instead.
Hungry again. Ineed some solid food

[mtmouse]

Thanks, Bogi! Those look great. (Of course, they should be dried in little rounds!)

I just found hemp seed at my health food store yesterday. I had to ask for it, because I didn't know what I was looking for, but they did have it.

[mtmouse]

Bogi,

As for the salad, I suspect you'll be fine. I'd try to keep it small, though, to see how you react. If you can get away with it, that should work!

I once ate a big bowl of cooked rice with butter on day 3 after a cleanse (a shorter one, of course). But I paid dearly for that! I'm so happy not to be having cravings this time around.