Day 1, yesterday, was pretty rough. I had a severe headache all day, I was tired all day, and basically, I just wanted to quit. Instead of quitting, though, I amended the requirements with the following exceptions:
- Dairy is allowed. I need the calcium, vit D, and protein.
- Cereal is allowed for breakfast only. Almost every weekday of my entire life I've had cereal for breakfast. Disrupting my breakfast schedule was extremely upsetting, so I've made that an exception to the raw food requirements. So now I can have a single serving of cereal in the mornings, as long as the cereal is not one of the super sugary ones.
- Meat is allowed. The abysmally low energy levels of day 1 made me realize that without carbs, dairy, legumes (because so far I haven't had the time to soak or sprout any), and meat, I really had no significant energy sources in my diet. So cooked meat is now allowed, in moderation, with the caveat that it must be lean. The weird thing here is that in my normal diet I don't eat meat very often at all. But now I feel the need to have some long term energy source in my diet.
- Condiments are allowed. I don't know why I didn't think of this one earlier, but boy does it make life so much better.
The upside: Today (day 2) went far more smoothly. This is partially because of the exceptions, but also I think a lot of it has to do with dealing with sugar withdrawal a lot better. I never thought I had a lot of sugar in my diet, but since this started, the constant craving of sugary carbs has made me realize that my body must be missing something. Sources of sugar that I've eliminated: tea/coffee will now be sweetened with stevia if at all, sweet desserts are replaced by sweet fruits (dates, berries, etc), and starchy carbs are replaced by fibrous veggies. Also, I've drastically increased my water intake. As I charted my daily food and drink intake I realized how little water I've been drinking recently. I'm sure the added water helped get rid of that headache.
The scary part is this diet has me finally on the upper end of the FDA fruit and veggie requirements. I always knew I could use a few more fruits and veggies, but I didn't realize just how much. Also, the past two days have made me realize how much cheaper processed food is. So far I've spent about $150 on groceries for just me, and I'm not sure they'll get me through the whole week. These include: oranges, strawberries, blueberries, apples, lettuce, 2 salads in a bag (for when I need a grab and go meal), pineapple, dates, cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, cheese, some naked fruit smoothies (things I used to avoid but now can indulge in), bananas, broccoli, olives, hummus (even though the garbanzo beans are lightly steamed, I'm counting it as raw), cauliflower, and red bell peppers. As I look at the list, it occurs to me that I need more veggies! I want to make some "raw spaghetti" out of zucchini and yellow squash, but I think it might be better later in the week when I'm running out of food. Other veggies I want to include: mushrooms, wheatgrass (do grasses count as vegetables?), green beans, cabbage, peas, and kale. I also need to add some nuts. Luckily we have walnuts, almonds, cashews, peanuts and pecans at home, so that won't have to be added to my grocery budget.
Also, I feel its important to note that this diet takes a lot of prep and planning. When I went to the local grocery store today and saw how many different kinds of precut veggies and fruits they had, I was pretty surprised. This is probably a good way to cut down on prep time, but the inner OCD in me can't fully trust precut, prewashed produce, so I'll probably only use that kind of stuff when I'm in a pinch. So far its been a lot of planning and prepping the night before.
Hopefully this works out! I'm actually really excited about it.
