Raw Food Journal Entry 2
April 12, 2011
Mood: This diet is new, so it’s exciting for me!
Breakfast: 4 plums, banana, orange, Raw organic fiber bar, Larabar
Today is the day I can test what the raw food will do for my stomach during the workout. We have a 12x400m workout on the track and a few weeks ago my stomach felt queasy on my normal diet. That day I ended up jogging slowly back to campus because I felt so sick to my stomach. This only led to major bathroom issues upon returning to the fitness center. I hope this is not a result of fiber, because this raw food diet has even more fiber. I hope it’s more of a result of eating wheat or diary or something because now I’ve taken those food groups out.
I’ve been reading Steve Pavlina’s blog (www.stevepavlina.com) because he did a 30-day trial of completely raw food. This was a good quote:
“I’m more interested in what fundamental diet we can all thrive on, not merely survive on. Just because we can tolerate a food doesn’t mean we should. We can drink large quantities of alcohol. We can eat cooked food. We can eat goat’s testicles if we want. But just because we can eat something doesn’t mean we should.”
So true. All these years I’ve been encouraged by family members and friends alike that I should treat myself, that I should indulge. Am I really being good to myself, to my body? I don’t feel it’s right to be encouraged to eat the food that won’t help my body. I have the right to control what I want to live off of. From now on, it’s under my control, and while others may look at me in weird ways and disagree with what I’m doing, I’m going to shake my head and be happy about what I’m supplying to my body. Raw food will give me a better excuse to do that.
I ended up going to Meijer with my mom to buy produce. I tried out okra, which is delicious! I was tempted to eat all of them on the way back to school but refrained from doing so because I knew I’d be having lunch at Wege soon. We made sure to get more raw food bars called “Pure bars” (they aren’t entirely raw but they are pretty close) for pre-run food.
Lunch consisted of three plates of zucchini and summer squash, sunflower seeds (about a 1/4 cup?), a few red peppers, a little bit of salsa, carrots, and peas. Not all of it was raw obviously but most of it was. I was tempted to grab a piece of pizza because some of the guys had some and it looked delicious today, but I refrained from doing so and enjoyed my vegetables.
I felt sleepy/tired/grouchy by 2:45pm until 3:40pm and felt extremely sluggish for our pre-workout warm-up. We had the 12x400m workout today. I felt nervous that all the fiber I ate throughout the day would bother my stomach but I had no discomfort whatsoever! I think dairy products are the culprits–any time I had cheese, lots of milk, or eggs before a run in the heat I’d have problems. I’m guessing I’m lactose intolerant then? At least when it comes to running… Overall, the workout ended up feeling great.
Dinner consisted of some cooked tuna. I realized I only got it out of habit. In reality it wasn’t that great (which could potentially be Wege’s fault or just the fish itself) and I didn’t end up eating it all. For the rest of the meal I had an apple, a banana, many plates of mixed lettuce, some peas, a little bit of sunflower seeds, beets, carrots, mushrooms, baby tomatoes, and zucchini and summer squash.
I felt hungry again later so I ate an orange and apple. I’ll admit, with as hungry as I was tonight, avoiding the cooked foods tricky at times. And I’m getting a little “fruit-ed” out.
The fact that you resisted pizza really shows how adamant you were about sticking to your food plan. I try to balance out the heavy foods with fruits and veggies too but if there’s pizza, I have to make room for that as well. I was starting to worry about your intake of fruit as well. You’re pretty much feeding yourself cups of sugar. I’m still rooting for you but also worried that you’re going to get sick of eating in such a strict manner. You go, Glen Coco.