Raw Objectivism

Starting Weight: 121.8 lbs

Starting Fat %: 22.2%

I started P90x for the second time today. I did it previously about a year and a half ago. I only made it for 50 days, when I got the flu and was down for the count. I didn’t feel like starting back up again once I was better, so I only did 50 days. I am doing it again though, and this time I plan to go for the whole 90 days.

P90x is a workout program by Beachbody that Tony Horton instructs. The man is obnoxious, but his ridiculous comments like “this is X-stream” (complete with hand motions crossing his arms in front of his face in the letter “X”) are oddly motivating. And for someone in his late 40s, he is in great shape.

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Tags: p90x, Vegan, Vegetarian
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Today is day four of my second round of the cleanse. I had one slip up last night when I ate an apple after dinner (one of the principles is to not consume solid food after lunch, allowing the body to digest the food more easily and spend more energy on detoxifying your system). After the disgusting soup attempt I made last night I had to do something to cleanse my palate so I ate an apple. I put way too much onion and garlic in last night’s raw soup and it was a disaster.

Today was a great, success, however. I had my normal morning shake of spinach, almond milk, flax seed and Sunwarrior Vanilla protein powder. I had a lunch of curried rice and beans (pinto beans, onion, long-grain brown rice and curry powder). For a snack I had some carrots and an apple. And then we come to dinner.

For dinner I created a wonderful raw vegan soup: “Cream” of bRAWcoli (the cheesy puns are basically required for raw food, sorry). It was delicious. I love using cashews to make my cheeze, and I love cream of broccoli soup. Since cream is not part of the Clean program diet guidelines (which also suggest that you should have at least 51% of your food come from raw sources during the cleanse), I decided to invent my own version. Unsurprisingly, to those who know me, it included cumin. And it was to die for. Check out the recipe here.

Feelings to Note:

I had a great day today. I was full of energy and even now feel like I’m running on a crap ton (technical term) of caffeine — which I’m not, of course, as caffeine is not allowed on the cleanse. It could be the mood enhancing 5-HTP (more on this later, but feel free to read up) I am taking that is contributing to this energetic feeling, but either way, it is a welcome change to depression. Going to the gym helps too!

Exercise:

1 hour of Body Pump

Tags: Body Pump, Clean Diet, Clean Program, Cleanse, detox, gluten free, Raw Vegan, Vegan, Vegetarian
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I know I’ve been AWOL lately and I apologize to my avid readers (all three of you) for being away. I have had a lot going on in my life lately and have felt either unmotivated or too stressed to write. I am still sorting the situation out, but I am not going to let it keep me from writing.

Birthday Gluten

My birthday was three weeks ago (Jan. 7th) and I am now 24. It seems so odd to me that I am almost 25 (quarterlife crisis anyone?). For my birthday I drove down to Bloomington to see my friend and go partying. We went out Friday and I drank hard cider and hard liquor. I didn’t get terribly drunk, but I did have quite a hangover on my birthday (Saturday).

That night we went out and I drank again. After partying for quite a few hours I decided I wanted breadsticks, and damn it! it was my birthday so I was going to have gluten. So I got myself an order of 10” cheesesticks at Papa Johns and proceeded to eat the whole thing. It was delicious; the melted cheese covered dough dipped in hot nacho cheese…mmm. So good.

But like other decisions made while drinking, it seemed like a much better idea at the time than it did in the morning. I woke up feeling warm all over my body. It was akin to the flush I felt when I reintroduced bread after I finished my Clean Diet, but it was much more intense. More of a whole-body experience. I also experienced constipation and floating stools, which my doctor friend tells me is a symptom of malabsorption. So while the food was delicious going down, this is not an experience I am looking to repeat any time soon.

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Tags: Bloomington Indiana, gluten free, Paleo, Raw Dairy, Raw Eggs, Raw Vegan, Vegetarian
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I am having issues with eating fruit lately. Before Christmas I ate two pineapples, which caused the corners of my lips to crack and hurt. Yesterday, I ate an apple and the corners of my lips went numb. It’s possible that the fruit was under-ripe so it was more acidic than it should have been.

I ate apples again today without any issues. However, I cut them into bite-sized pieces so they would not touch my lips. This could be the reason for the lack of issue.

Mostly Raw

I ate 100% raw yesterday, but today I added in eggs and some roasted peanut butter. I did not notice any issues after eating cooked food.

Today’s Food

Breakfast: 2 hard-boiled eggs, blackberries, kiwi, and blueberries

Lunch: Salad with spinach, tomato, green bell pepper, cucumber and avocado

Dinner: Rawvioli with Tomato “Cream” Sauce

Snacks: Three apples with peanut butter and dried goji berries

Tags: gluten free, Gluten-Free, ravioli, Raw Vegan, rawvioli, Vegetarian
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My plan was to do thirty days of Low-Fat-Raw-Vegan. For those thirty days I ate completely raw and tried to stay as close to 80% calories from carbohydrates, 10% of calories from fat and 10% of calories from protein as possible. However I noticed a lot of cravings for fat (and likely protein as well as many high fat raw foods like nuts and seeds contain higher amounts of protein). I also got a lot of head aches and shakiness, which I am attributing to a sugar high.

The Cruise

I went a cruise with my family for Christmas to celebrate my grandfather’s 80th birthday. It was a bunch of fun. We went to Key West, Nassau and Cococay (a private island in the Bahamas owned by Royal Caribbean Cruise Line). I wasn’t a big fan of Nassau or Cococay. Nassau was too kitschy and Cococay is a beach. Being a ginger, I’m not one for beaches.

I started eating raw on the cruise. There was a buffet for lunch on the first day so I got some salad and fruit. However, dinner was a bit more complicated. I could have had just a salad for dinner and stayed LFRV, but I decided to add back in cooked food. It was technically only day 29, but it was easier and tastier to have a cooked meal.

I went back to vegetarian for the cruise adding in eggs for breakfast and a lightly creamed dish for dinner – a potato curry one night on the cruise and another Indian dish the day after, both of which contained ghee.

Mostly Raw Vegetarian

For the last few days I have continued eating mostly raw and vegetarian. I got some raw gruyere cheese from Whole Foods and tried that. Surprisingly it did not cause any of the symptoms I experienced with pasteurized cheese (flushing, upset stomach, constipation). It was odd that it was such a different reaction raw. I had soft-boiled eggs with the raw cheese. Delicious.

Going Forward

I plan on staying high raw and doing a more reasonable amount of fat, protein and carbohydrates going forward. I got a dehydrator for Christmas so I will be using that to make almond crackers, onion crackers, banana crepes and whatever else creative dehydrated foods I can think of. I will be posting the recipes in the recipe section so look for them!

I’m not sure yet if I will continue to add in eggs and dairy. I will start out being raw vegan and see if I can thrive. Stay tuned!

Tags: Cruise, gluten free, LFRV, Raw Vegan, Vegan, Vegetarian
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You’ve got to love Thanksgiving in the United States. Like every holiday, we over-indulge in high-fat, high-sugar and high-salt foods (and some that contain all three!). The only difference with Thanksgiving is that it is actually centered around this massive over-consumption, which makes it even more socially acceptable–and easier to rationalize.

I’m not immune to this trend. Thanksgiving with my family includes liver dumpling soup, turkey, wet and dry stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans (sometimes in casserole form) and yeast rolls. Before I discovered that I had issues with   gluten, those yeast rolls were my favorite part about Thanksgiving dinner. Being a vegetarian (as I have been for the past 11 years) the rest of the meal didn’t have much appeal for me. I would usually have some tortellini soup (made with vegetable broth and three-cheese tortellini) along with about three or so rolls and a few veggies. Dessert would include pumpkin pie and apple crisp with ice cream.

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Tags: gluten free, LFRV, thanksgiving, Vegan, Vegetarian
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My boyfriend and I at the Ferrari Festival

I had a wonderful weekend in Houston. I always enjoy my time there (I think it’s mainly the company).

I got down there Thursday night. My boyfriend picked me up from the airport, and we went straight to a club in Houston Midtown called 5th Amendment for my boyfriend’s friend’s birthday.

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Tags: gluten free, Houston, reintroduction, Vegetarian
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This weekend was full of bad decisions. Friday night I went to a Halloween party with some coworkers dressed as Pebbles. I pulled it off pretty well. I need to get a bone for my hair though to make it a more accurate costumes. There was candy at the party and I decided to have some Swedish Fish and Sour Patch Kids. I hadn’t had processed sugar in almost two months, and I binged. After eating all of that candy, my stomach hurt and I felt a bit nauseated. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling.

My childhood friend got married this weekend. It’s an odd thing when you friends start getting married. It makes me feel old. I’m nowhere near ready to be married and settled down. The wedding was in Indiana so I drove about three hours to get there. The ceremony was nice. The reception included an open bar as well as a s’mores bar and a cigar bar. I started off the bad choices by having a few marshmallows lightly seared over the fire. They were so sweet and melted in my mouth. If I had stopped there with the bad decisions I would be ok. Instead I decided to have a glass of wine. It made my face feel warm and flushed almost immediately, but I didn’t feel buzzed after one so I figured I could have another. Three more glasses in and I was drunk.

I completed the bad decision trifecta by smoking part of a cigar and then having a cigarette. It had been three months without smoking but at the time it seemed like a good idea.

The Aftermath

Every decision has consequences. This morning I woke up with a horrid hangover. I felt nauseated, and my head was killing me. My parents and I (they were there for the wedding as well) went to breakfast. I had an omelet with no cheese, mushrooms and spinach. I can’t equivocally say if I reacted to the eggs or not as I was so hungover and have basically been having hot flashes all day.

Luckily I was able to drive home. When I got home I basically slept all day. My hangover finally reduced to a manageable level at around 7:30 when I was able to make dinner and cook my lunch for tomorrow.

I don’t like the effects drinking has on me. I make bad decisions and am not myself. And afterward I feel sick, hungover, and depressed. Wine is not my friend.

Today’s Food

I didn’t pay enough attention to record calories

Breakfast: Omelette with mushrooms and spinach

Lunch: Carrots and hummus

Dinner: Amy’s low sodium split pea soup

Snacks: Bananas and pears

Feelings to Note

Hungover, depressed. Bleh

Exercise

None

Tags: Binge eating, Drinking, gluten free, Junk food, Overeating, Vegetarian
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I didn’t feel well at all today. I had cramps all day and felt bloated. I couldn’t even make it to work out, the pain was so bad. I tried cheese again today for dinner. I didn’t notice any warmth after eating it, but if today’s stomach issues are any indication, cheese is not for me. Tomorrow I’ll have more information about the effects.

Today’s Food

Calories: 2389
Fat: 53 g
Carbs: 466 g
Sugar: 260 g
Protein: 64 g

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Tags: Clean Program, gluten free, reintroduction, Vegetarian
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Ingredients for Tonight's Dinner of Mashed Cauliflower with Cheddar Cheese

I tried “normal” cheese today by eating sharp cheddar instead of camembert. My face became a bit warm after eating the cheddar with mashed cauliflower. I also felt a bit bloated. However, since the cheese was eaten for dinner, I will have to pay attention in the morning to see if there are other symptoms. I will try the cheddar again tomorrow to see if I have the same, or worse, symptoms.

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Tags: Clean Program, gluten free, reintroduction, Vegetarian
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