December Monthly Review #2

Here we are, our second monthly review. Again in no particular order.

Probably the biggest change this month has been the warmer weather here in Victoria compared to Montreal. No snow and temperatures consistently above freezing makes eating raw food so much more enjoyable. Who knows, maybe I'll try Mexico next and see how that feels!

I imagine it would have been possible to go through the Christmas/New Year season eating 100% raw. In the big picture, however, I find giving myself a bit of a break has made this whole process more manageable and enjoyable. The trick of course, is getting back on board when the time comes.

When I started this process, I was on the high end of my weight range and had a bit of a paunch that I wasn't happy about. Thirty pounds less, that is certainly no longer the case. Last month I had to replace my belt, this month I had to get new jeans. Now that I'm on the low end of my weight range, I definitely feel lighter and more comfortable in my body.

Last month, I mentioned that tossed green salad all day, every day was starting to wear thin, and that I needed to start researching raw food recipes. Well, I've started that process with a book on Salad Dressings and the discovery of some interesting raw food sites on the Web. (More on that later.) I've also been stocking up on spices, etc. and am starting to do a little experimenting. So far, so good.

I'm quite amazed at how much time and energy this process takes. I've read about people who go on a 100% raw food diet while continuing to work full time. I don't know how they do it. I find that between sleeping in and going to bed early, the research, the (almost daily) shopping for fresh food, juicing, food preparation, drops, etc. the day goes by extremely quickly. I imagine that one day this will become second nature, and that I will be able to do it much more efficiently and quickly. For the moment, however, I find it takes up a significant part of the day.

Many sources speak to the power of carrot juicing to cure cancer and other serious diseases. Somewhere along the line, however, my carrot juicing slowly came to a halt. I definitely need to get back to a daily intake of 20 oz. of carrot juice.

Week Nine Summary

Week Nine. It feels good to be starting the New Year with this new diet. I'm also pleased the changes to my diet so far have been minimal.

It's taken some time and effort to get set up anew here on the west coast. Fortunately, I did order some items ahead of time, one of which was a book on salad dressings. Salad Dressings for Life (available from Hallelujah Acres) http://ecommerce.hacres.com/Educational/Recipes-Books has proven to be quite helpful. I also went out and bought a wide assortment of spices and herbs which has made it possible for me to make a number of tasty dressings.

These dressings, Orange-Tahini,  Lemon,  Russian,  Avocado Tomato,  Tangy Mango  etc. have gone a long way toward creating a sense of variety in the salads I've been having. This is particularly important when raw vegetables are pretty much the only things one has to work with.

I'm not much of a cook, so having a few recipes, some of them quite simple, has boosted my confidence and encouraged me to be more intentional and adventuresome around my "cooking."

The stats for this past week show an interesting change of direction:

                             12/27/09             01/03/10           Change

Weight              133.7 lbs.               134.9                   +1.2 lbs.

Interesting how the introduction of cooked food quickly changes one's weight.

A few years ago I spent about a month in a health spa in Mexico. I lost about 25 pounds and arrived back in Canada weighing about 140 pounds. Once home, I continued to eat well but, unlike Mexico, cooked food was a bigger part of my diet. I put on one or two pounds a week. Within six months, I was back to my old weight of about 165 pounds.

I'm no doctor, but this anecdotal evidence (along with the resumption of weight loss in the coming weeks once I return to raw food) strongly suggests that a raw food diet goes a long ways in assisting a person lose any unnecessary weight.

Body Fat           20.3 lbs.                 20.9                    +0.6 lbs.

Half the increase is fat. Not totally surprising as I've indulged in delicious Brie cheese and hummous this past week.

BMI                     21.0                        21.2                     +0.2

A slight increase due to a slight weight gain.

Body Fat           15.0%                     15.5                     +0.5       

Same as above but as a percentage.

Water                62.0%                     61.7                    -0.3%

For the first time, a very small downward change. Not sure if it's a reflection of the weight gain, or the diet.

Bone Mass        6.4%                       6.4                       No change.

The bone mass seems to be holding its own.

Week Eight Summary

Note: 1/16/10. My apologies for the delay, a combination of Christmas holidays and some technological challenges in my new location. I hope to catch up over the coming week.

Week Eight. Two months have come and gone, and I'm delighted to say that I'm doing pretty well.

A few days after my lemon fast I started feeling more energy, and that has continued through to today. I don't seem to need the same 10 to 12 hours of sleep as I did in previous weeks. Eight to ten hours seem to be sufficient these past few days.

I've decided to take a break from Montreal (and the snow) to visit friends on Vancouver Island. My Christmas Eve flight to Victoria went well. The airports were busy, but not unduly so.

I prefer to consciously take a break from the raw food diet than to find myself overwhelmed and in a moment of frustration "fall off the wagon." Given the temptations of the season and the challenges of preparing a new place with the appliances and food necessary to continue with my diet, I've decided to take a modified approach the last week of December and the first week of January. No big changes really. A bit of cooked food I wouldn't otherwise have, a bit of cheese and other nibbles, that sort of thing.

The electronic scale used for the measurements this week is made by the same manufacturer, for the same company, but it is a different model than the one I was using in Montreal. (I'm sure that the results will be essentially the same as those I would have gotten in Montreal, but I felt I should note the change.)

The stats for this past week:

                             12/20/09            12/27/09           Change

Weight              134.4 lbs.             133.7                   -0.7 lbs.

A very slight drop this week.

Body Fat           21.0 lbs.               20.3                    -0.7 lbs.

Another week where 100% of the week's weight loss is body fat. Amazing!

BMI                     15.7                        21.0                    

This new scale puts my BMI index much higher. Not sure what is going on, but since it is a calculated field (based on height and weight) I will just go back to the previous weeks and do the calculations manually.

Body Fat           21.1%                     15.0                   

Same as above but as a percentage. (Another calculated field which seems off. I will review and adjust if necessary.)

Water                61.5%                     62.0                    +0.5%

The continued rise in my water percentage continues to amaze me, as I know only too well I've not been drinking a lot of water in the course of the day. I can only attribute this to the water content in the raw food, and the absence of coffee, which is a diuretic.

Bone Mass        6.4%                      6.4                       No change.

If I continue with a healthy diet, this very slight deficiency in bone mass will slow down and eventually rectify itself as the body becomes more alkaline and the levels of calcium start to rise from eating raw food.

Raw Food Heaven

Yesterday, my sister and her husband treated me to supper at one of the 100% raw food restaurants here in Montreal -a celebration of my progress to date/Christmas present combo. A lovely gesture on their part. Thank you Susie and Michel.

Crudessence, Crudessence.com/en/services/restaurant, is a tiny, hole-in-the-wall establishment located on a side street near Mont Royal. A small, light green sign, easily missed, marks the entrance. A wide variety of raw food cookbooks line the wall on the right of the entrance, a small kitchen in the back, eight or nine small tables for two, a classical guitarist playing in the background, and a lovely, friendly, waitress busy with guests and take-out orders greeted us when we arrived about 7 p.m. 

 The restaurant has a minimal amount of decor; The real art work is the fabulous food, and gorgeous presentation.

It would have been nice to have had a few more dishes to try out. Unfortunately, they were out of the soups and the Japanese-themed dishes. I substituted an entree for the soup included in the daily special -a nachos style creation with side dishes of avocado and tomatoes diced and marinating in an olive oil dressing. There was also a tasty paste-like spread with sliced radishes and cherry tomatoes for garnish. 

The main dish was the Om Burger. A lovely creation and quite filling. Using various spices they did a fabulous job of recreating the taste one would expect of mustard, ketchup and mayonnaise. The resemblance was uncanny, and yet, it tasted even better. 

The salad mostly consisted of tiny slices of cauliflower with a dusting of seaweed throughout. A bit of red cabbage done up in long strings and finely crated carrots for color. One of the dressings, was made with coconut water, agave syrup, and carrigan seed powder. It had a very unique taste. I quite liked it.

Dessert was a cocoa-banana crêpe. From what I gathered, Brazil nuts and bananas are mixed together into a purée, which is then poured very thinly onto Teflon sheets and dehydrated. The crêpe was filled with sliced, ripe bananas, with chopped hazel nuts sprinkled throughout. The outside was decorated with a cocoa sauce. 

The food was delicious, beautifully prepared and presented and a fitting celebration of my time here in Montreal. It is also an inspiration and challenge to me to stretch myself to find creative ways to make raw food more fun and tasty. (The one qualifier is that much of the food is quite rich. Ironically, eating like this every day would probably not be that healthy.) 

Anybody out there with a favourite recipe they´d like to share?

Week Seven Summary

Week Seven has come and gone, and I'm hanging in there!!

Except for Monday this past week, I've been on a lemon juice fast. With the exception of one day, it's was easier than I thought. I really didn't feel all that hungry most of the time. And when I did, I simply had a cup or so of the lemon juice, and that would hold me for awhile. If anything, I had trouble drinking more than four glasses a day.

I saw the naturopath this week and he was pleased with my discipline and the progress we've made so far. He was expecting more at the level of the liver (specifically, corn kernel-sized deposits in my stool, yellow, orange and/or yellow-orange in color).

When I explained to him the visceral manipulation I had done with the osteopath, he felt that this would almost certainly account for slower progress. He suggested another month of the drops and upped the Essiac from 20 ml. to 2 tablespoons, 2X daily.

Almost two months and I've not had so much as a crouton of cooked food! It has been a challenge to be sure, but hey, I've made it. The real test will be the coming two weeks -all the invitations to dinner and the goodies that come with the Christmas and New Year festivities. Time will tell.

Until then, wishing all of you a joyous, blessed Christmas Season.

The stats for this past week:

                               12/13/09              12/20/09      Change

Weight                 138.6 lbs.               134.4              -4.2 lbs.

I haven't been at this weight in decades! I feel pretty good overal, a little weak from being on the lemon juice fast, but all things considered I 'd rather be this weight than where I was two months ago before I started on this journey.

Body Fat             25.2 lbs.                  21.0               -4.2 lbs.

Last week I wrote, It seems I´ve dropped the easy part; I suspect the rest of the fat will be slower to drop off. It seems I couldn't be more wrong. 100% of this week's weight loss is body fat. Amazing!

BMI                     18.2                          15.7                -2.5

Well it seems my BMI index is dropping like a stone. I spoke with my naturopath and he said this was to be expected. Whatever part of the body, including muscle, was not healthy tissue would be flushed out as part of the first phase, the cleansing process. In the second phase, the rebuilding process, new tissue would be created as needed, and my weight would start climbing again until it found its proper level.

Body Fat             18.2%                     21.1                +2.9%

Same as above but as a percentage. (The math doesn't seem to work out. Will check this again next week.)

Water                  59.8%                      61.5               +1.7%

Given that I only drank lemon juice flavoured water all week, this much of a jump in water content is not surprising. The trick will be to up my usual intake of water over the course of the coming weeks, so that my percentage doesn't drop too much.

Bone Mass          6.4%                        6.4                  No change.

The naturopath said that some bone loss was not out of the ordinary. The body sometimes chooses the lesser of two evils. If acidity in the body was the major problem, then it might get calcium, which is alkaline, from the bones if no other source was available -even if that meant creating a substandard level of bone density.

If I continue with a healthy diet, this deficiency in bone mass will slow down and eventually rectify itself as the body becomes more alkaline and the levels of calcium start to rise from eating raw food.

Lemon Fast

Part of the cleansing process is a fast once a month. Last month I did the minimum five days on grapes (juice). This month it´s a lemon fast, minimum one day to a maximum of ten days.

The lemon fast, often times referred to as "The Master Cleanse," consists of approximately:
two ounces of freshly squeezed lemon juice,
a half teaspoon of maple syrup,
a pinch of cayenne pepper, in
ten ounces of water.

I felt pretty good at the end, and could have gone on. However, I´m traveling back west in a few days and need a bit of time to transition to solid food, so Sunday afternoon I wrapped it up.

Below is a summary of how the week went.

Tuesday,  12/15/09    
Three glasses of Lemon Juice plus 2 glasses of Bio Flow.
 Energy levels are down somewhat, but not overly tired.


 Wednesday  12/16/09    
Three glasses of Lemon Juice plus 2 glasses of Bio Flow.
 Energy levels are better today.

A surge of energy late at night. Turned in about midnight, much later than usual.


 Thursday,  12/17/09   
Three glasses of Lemon Juice plus 2 glasses of Bio Flow.
 Slept in this morning. 

Did pretty OK until supper time. The smell of chicken cooking in the kitchen was particularly tough. Feeling pretty tired this evening.

They say Day 3 is the toughest. Will be interesting to see how tomorrow goes.


Friday,  12/18/09
Three glasses of Lemon Juice plus 1 glass of Bio Flow.
 Up early this morning. Feel a bit more energized today.

 Did a fair bit of walking this afternoon. There were a few times today at the mall, where it was tough to watch people eating or drinking coffee.

This evening I got caught up in the computer and ended up doing five hours straight of photo editing. Although I went to bed way too late tonight, I feel pretty good. 


Saturday,  12/19/09
Three glasses of Lemon Juice plus 2 glasses of Bio Flow.
 Slept in, but am feeling tired. 

I over did it last night and I´m paying for it today. I feel like I have no energy whatsoever. I realize now that one can´t overdue it when on a fast. I might get away with it on a regular day, but not on a fast.

Just hanging in. I´m sure tomorrow I'll be better.


Sunday,  12/20/09
Three glasses of Lemon Juice plus 2 glasses of Bio Flow.
Woke up feeling much better this morning.

This afternoon I had a bowel movement that looked like some of the pictures one sees in some colon cleansing ads. Should have taken a picture to show you, but flushed it before I thought of it. (Lucky you!)
This afternoon I had a fruit smoothie. Tasted pretty good!


Review
The thing I noticed most about this fast was the overall lack of energy and how it makes it difficult to think as I usually do. I find myself less caught up in the outside world. I feel more aware of my body and my immediate surroundings. I´m also aware of the absence of the usual mental chatter. There´s a stronger sense of silence. Overall, I feel more in the moment.

I now know first hand why fasting is such a basic part of most spiritual traditions. The lack of energy makes it more difficult to maintain one´s outward directed energy. The fasting physically forces us to stop looking outside of ourselves, and lo, and behold, we become more aware of our inner world. It was there all along of course. It's just that now that the mental chatter has subsided, we can better hear the small, still, voice that resides in our inmost being. 

Who knows what it might have to say?

Week Six Summary

The weekly summaries keep coming in. Week Six already. It feels like I started just a little while ago -and ages ago- at the same time.

For the most part, this past week has been a continuation of the previous week: more tired than usual,  less stamina, more fragile, a tenderness in the abdomen area, especially higher up in the sternum area and not quite as mentally positive. At a few points, Thursday and Saturday evenings in particular, I could easily have packed it in. It really is one day at a time.

Except for Wednesday afternoon, I passed on my exercises this week. It was probably a good thing to take it easy and not push things. 

I will be starting a 1-to-10 day lemon juice fast on Monday or Tuesday. I don´t know whether or not I will have the energy to do my morning exercises. We´ll see. 

(I did do a lemon juice fast in my mid-twenties. I recall the first few days were difficult, but from the fifth day or so till the 10th day, I felt surprisingly energized.)

Stats for this past week:

                             12/06/09             12/13/09    Change

Weight              141.8 lbs.              138.6             -3.2 lbs.

I´m getting closer to my high school weight of about 135 pounds. Except for a month or two at a Mexican health spa a few years ago, I haven´t been in this vicinity for a long time. I would prefer more muscular definition, but on the whole I feel pretty good.

Body Fat           26.1 lbs.                25.2               -.90 lbs.

A smaller percentage of the weight loss is body fat this time around. It seems I´ve dropped the easy part; I suspect the rest of the fat will be slower to drop off.

BMI                     18.4                      18.2                -0.2

Last week, I noted that 18.4 was at the low end of the low range. I expected that, as the naturopath advised, my weight, and accordingly my BMI index, would drop even further before rebounding back to my ideal weight. I still agree with that.

Body Fat           22.2%                   18.2               -4.0%

Same as above but as a percentage.

Water                59.6%                   59.8               +0.2%

I keep being surprised by the steady, albeit small increases, in water percentage. I presume that it´s partially a result of the higher water content of the fresh fruit and vegetables. With no coffee, there is no diuretic affect either.

Bone Mass       6.5%                       6.4                -0.1%

With very little exercise most of last week and all of this week, this is not a surprise. Still, bone loss is a serious issue. I will be speaking to the naturopath about it this week.