Day 5
Breakfast- 16 oz orange juice – 220 calories
Lunch (after a super fast 45 mile bike ride)- 70 oz orange juice, 10 dates- 1700 calories
Dinner- guacamole and random veggies at a mexican restaurant. Followed by home made zuccini pasta (2 zicchini, pine nuts), and a big salad (1/2 romain head, 1 carrot, raddichio, 1 apple, pumpkin seeds, lemon). About 680 calories
Ratio: (carb, fat, protein) 72/21/6
Water: 45oz
Calories: 2635
Sleep: 6 hours
Exercise: fast 45 mile bike ride
I'm still working on getting the right calories in, and this day my fat intake was too high. I went to a Mexican restaurant after the bike ride with friends and was pleasantly surprised that they had cheap fresh squeezed orange juice. I drank about 70 oz of very pulpy juice, followed by greens and guacamole. After the ride though, I was still at a significant calorie deficit. I got two pineapples at Kroger and I could barely eat a few bites before my stomach hurt so bad I needed to quit.
This brings me to an important lesson to share: when eating raw foods, it is important to combine them properly and eat them in the right order because they digest so quickly. It doesn't matter quite as much with cooked food because it takes more time to process. With raw food, if I eat something that digests slowly like guacamole or salad, and then I eat fruit later, the fruit sits in my stomach and produces gas, etc. Below is a chart explaining what combines well. Anything that directly touches is “safe”.
I don't follow this chart perfectly, BUT when my stomach hurts on this way of eating, I try to think about why. In this instance, I'm pretty sure it was having the super acidic/quickly digesting pineapple after eating guacamole. Lesson learned.
My skin looks great and I started my period today without warning because I've had NO CRAMPS. I went to a restaurant last night (again) and brought my own salads. No one minded (not even the waitress) but it was a super casual atmosphere.
Day 6
Day 6 Breakfast- one medium watermelon. 16oz orange juice. 1540 calories
Lunch- 2lbs grapes, 15 halawi (small) dates- 1100 calories
Dinner- salad with 1/2 head romaine, bell pepper, carrots, celery, onion, yellow beet, radishes, pumpkin seeds, apples, grapes. 350 calories
Total calories…3010!
Sleep: 7 hours. Exercise: 100 squats. 100 wall push-ups. Feelings: I ate the whole watermelon for breakfast because I was so hungry! A little under-carbed after my hard ride the day before
Day 7
Breakfast- 16oz orange juice. 8 bananas, 2 cups strawberries blended.
Lunch- 5 bananas, 1 cup strawberry blended
Second lunch- (had a work meeting at Ruggles green)- huge bed if spring mix lettuce, lots of dried fruit and a couple pieces (literally) slivered almonds (totally had to guess on calories)
Snack- date treat thing I made. I just had a few bites, I'm guessing about 15 dates worth
Dinner- lettuce, 1c chopped tomatoe, 1/2c raisins
Total calories- 2560
Sleep: 7 hours
Biked 25 miles
Day 8
Breakfast- date spread- 1lb dates, vanilla, cinnamon, carob on 2.5 apples (was sharing hence the half) 1,510 calories
Lunch- 8 bananas, 840 calories
Snack- 10 halawi dates, 200 calories
Dinner- 4cups spring mix lettuce, 1c romain, 1/2 bell pepper, 1/2 apple, 5 olives, 1/2c broccoli, 145 calories
Total calories- 2695
Sleep: 7 hours
Feelings: I feel great. Proud of myself for planning well around social events! Had fantastic bm yesterday and today and feeling much lighter
Day 9
Breakfast: 6 bananas, cup of strawberries, cup I coconut water. 720 calories
Lunch/snacks: 96oz orange juice. 1340 calories
Dinner: 6oz dates, romaine, guacamole, corn, tomatoes. 700
Total: 2760 Exercise: 100 squats
I had the dates around 4:30 before leaving work, and didn't get home from an event until 9. Had the salad from chipotle at about 9:30pm…too late for me to eat! I went to bed after 11pm and got up at 5:30am, and was immediately a big emotional mess. I need more sleep than that!
Observations
Calories: One appeal to this lifestyle is that I don't have to restrict calories at all, but the downside is that I have to make sure I eat enough or I'll have intense cravings for high fat, high calorie foods. Being prepared is really important, so this weekend I am going to start keeping medjool dates in my purse. They are small but dense in calories and sugar, so they'll make great emergency snacks.
How Foods Make Me Feel: Another observation is how different foods make me feel. When I fresh juice, it takes more calories to make me feel satisfied, but I also feel super light on my feet all day, and really hydrated. I liked worrying less about drinking water. I feel heavier with the smoothies, but also a little more satisfied.
Girl Talk: I had my…monthly visitor…this week and I was surprised by how much better my pain was. Usually, I pop tylenol and drink caffeine as often as possible during these 5 days, but I didn't need either at all. Actually, I went one day this week without any coffee/caffeine at all! I don't feel significantly different, so I'm glad I am blogging about this challenge because it makes me keep track of experiences like this.
Weight: My weight was higher than normal before this challenge, up to 138. My normal weight before then was about 136. The last two days I weighed 133-134, so I've probably lost a couple pounds (but I am really trying not to focus on that).
Where I have Been Getting My Food
Some people assume I am spending significantly more money on groceries in order to eat this way. Since I was eating a high raw diet before this, my budget has actually decreased or remained the same. What extra produce I am buying is cheaper than what I was spending on restaurant cooked food a few times a week. Here are some of the things I do to keep costs lower though:
- Kroger has half gallons of fresh squeezed orange juice for $5, so this was a great, cheap meal.
- Bananas are cheap and because of their peels, it matters less whether I get organic or not. I try to ALWAYS have ripe, spotty bananas around. Right now, I also have a ton of frozen bananas that were about to be too ripe. I strongly prefer smootheis with banana as the base, because it helps the consistency to be really smooth and sweet.
- I get my greens mostly from the Rawfully Organic co-op. Since I can't go every week, sometimes I'll get those at Kroger as well.
- Dates make a great staple too, especially on days I need to sneak more calories in. Kroger and HEB sell them for $5-$7 per pound, but buying online in bulk is definitely better. I got some dates on sale, 16 lbs for $80. They are extremely dry, which is a bummer…BUT they were only about $2/pound! So I consider it a good investment.
So yesterday for breakfast I had a bowl of Cheerios then ate some delicious grapes. I had a lot of gas! Couldn’t figure out why, but now you have explained it! Love you, Baby Girl!!