For the past few years, I've basically lived a "high raw" life and I've enjoyed it. Some days were all raw and some were mostly raw with a sprinkling of days that were only moderately raw (they're always vegan though). I'm a big believer in listening to your body, taking it easy, and not stressing about food choices so long as you're feeling good and more often than not doing the right thing.
At the end of December, though, my tune changed a bit. My diet had been quite clean, but my body told me to eat more raw and kick it up a notch. I felt drawn to it and excited about it.
So, it's been a month now and I've been pretty much 100% Raw with exception to 4 meals (which were still partly raw) in addition to the oats I'm going to eat a few days a week that I mentioned in my
last post to help with my breastmilk supply if I feel it's necessary.
What do I think? Well. I feel amazing, as you might expect. I feel euphoric, on top of the world, extra lean, and I'm running on all cylinders with ease. It's a great feeling. My cells are dancing. I've got my groove on and it feeeeeeeels awesome.
I wrote in my last email newsletter (sign up
here) about a couple of different ways that you can successfully stick to the raw diet with ease. I'm doing the method now where I constantly load up on fresh produce and raw foods so that my kitchen is always stocked with just about anything I could want to make a recipe.
I am loving this method. Every night I think about what I might make the next day and I write down all of the possibilities, whether I stick to the plan or not. It's a guide. Not set in stone and it gives me ideas to help me stick to the goal of raw while still allowing flexibility for changing tastes or if Kamea decides that making a raw lasagna is not in the cards that day.
I'm staying stocked with food. I have bags of granola, jars of all different nuts and seeds, kale chips galore, nut butters up the wazoo, stashes of different snack bars (some bought, some homemade), protein powders by the case, my dehydrator has been humming non-stop for the past month, I'm loaded with different kinds of crackers and trail mix, my counters and refrigerators are bursting with fresh produce, and my freezers have frozen fruit, chocolate truffles, and other stocked foods (sprouting seeds, flax seeds, and chia seeds - oh my!). And. I just ordered a bunch of jars of
Rawtella because I don't ever want to be caught without it. It's the PERFECT fix when I need my chocolate.
How do I stay stocked like this? Well, I go to the store 1-2 times a week plus get a weekly food delivery for my produce. For most of the other stuff (nuts, seeds, packaged foods) I usually go online for good deals.
It's really cool. I wake up and think.... "Wow, I can't wait to start my day!" As my friend, Lauren, might say, "Nerd alert." lol
Maybe I feel like raw pizza? No problem... I have cracker crusts in my pantry. I have nuts I can quickly soak to make cheese. I have fresh tomatoes and basil to chop and spread on top. Voila! Pizza. Oh.. I want soup? Easy.... Load my blender up with fresh produce along with some
homemade nut milk and I'm good to go. Perhaps I want to take it easy and sip on some green juice - awesome... grab some kale, celery, and cukes. Done. Can't decide what to have? Ok... get started with a salad and go from there.... sprouts, bell pepper, carrots, olives, avocado... yum! Or maybe I want a hearty collard green bad-ass wrap - cool - I have all the fixin's for that, too... sprouts, chopped lettuce, shredded beet, lime juice, olives, whip up some cashew cheese or spread some miso on it, add more veggies and a sprinkling of Himalayan crystal salt. Mmmmm mmmmm. Or how about some of that fancy,
certified organic coconut water that is $10 bucks a bottle? Give me a case so I'm stocked (and you get a discount when buying by the case) and I'll take that treat all day long! I get slap happy just thinking about it stocked up in my freezer.
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| This is my big freezer. |
I know some people ask me how I keep a kitchen stocked with the cost of some raw foods. Well, here is the thing. I've said this before. I gladly put my money into my health with raw foods. All organic. I really don't think twice about it. Ok, maybe sometimes I think twice, but then I slap myself (not really) and say, "Snap out of it, Kristen, you are worth it. This is your health!" I don't really do a lot of shopping for things that maybe others shop for... instead I use my money for my kitchen and raw lifestyle. I buy appliances that keep my excitement running high for food prep. I get happy shivers down my spine when I snag lots of orange bell peppers at Whole Foods. I don't drink fancy coffee drinks that many people spend hundreds of dollars on a month... instead I spend that money on goji berries, pine nuts, fancy raw sprouted almond and cashew butters, raw cacao, and other dazzling raw goodies.
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| This is the door to the freezer. |
Also... I buy in bulk. This cuts down on the cost. You can also split the foods with friends if getting in bulk is too much. I look for things on sale. We rarely eat out, too. In Kris Carr's new book,
Crazy Sexy Diet, she calculates the cost of eating fast food for the day and it amounts to about $20 a person. That's not cheap - and that's fast food! By making my meals at home, even when I use more expensive products because they're organic, it's not unreasonable. Oh, and by the way, I rarely get sick. I don't take prescriptions. That saves money in the long run!
Plus. When it comes to the holidays and my birthday, I am not shy about telling people exactly what I want whether it's a shiny new juicer, a gift card to Amazon to help me save for an appliance or get this... I ask for gift cards to Whole Foods. I know... some people want to scream LAME! Heck no - I love it! I've also redeemed credit card rewards for Amazon.com gift cards and then used those on raw food appliances and supplies.
Bottom line - I want to live until I'm at least 100 years of age. I want to be healthy for Kamea all my years. I want my husband to be there with me every step of the way. How do we reach that goal? EATING HEALTHY! It's our priority and we live it.
