A Soft Week

Dear readers, this has been a very interesting first week of rawness.  I offered myself a great deal of flexibility this week as far as being 100% raw.  Budgetary constraints before payday and temptation from the lovely things that I cooked for supper led to a certain lack of commitment.

I am not going to be bothered by this, however, as I allowed myself to be more loose this week.  Now that I am acclimatized I am ready to be more committed to being strictly raw in the coming week.

I have never been overly keen on making salad, but I am coming up with some delicious and unusual combinations.  For example:

-Spinach, pear, broccoli, raisins and pecans with "caesar" dressing
-fennel, marinated mushroom, spinach, with flax and chia cracker crumble (more on that in a minute)

I have learned to work with a few new ingredients.  Chia seeds, for example, are a very popular thing at the moment and I tend to roll my eyes a bit at faddish stuff.  Still, for a raw diet they are a neat thing to work with.  They can also be insanely sticky.  If ever you plan to make raw crackers BE SURE TO USE PARCHMENT PAPER ON THE BAKING SHEET!

Here is a very nice link that I found in my explorations.  I made Coconut Mango Chia Pudding last night.  YUM!  But don't eat too much because it fills you up like crazy, and makes a hasty exit the following morning.

http://greatist.com/eat/chia-seed-pudding-recipes

Some things that I noticed this week in my physical adaptation to eating so much raw were expected and some were not.  First, I had a raging headache for the first day and a half of the process.  Being no stranger to cleanses I recognize this as being a symptom of the Candida (or yeast) dying off.  I was also a complete grouch over the first couple of days which was also expected as I got used to eating less calories at the beginning.

My guts have taken a little time adapting to the roughage passing through.  I discovered that raw cruciferous veg (such as broccoli and cabbage) give me a very hard time with bloating and gas, as well as having a dampening effect on my already beleaguered thyroid.  So I am supposed to ferment them... not sure whether that appeals to me.  I am not a huge fan of kimchi or saurkraut.  But maybe I will make a small batch in the interest of gastro-intestinal health. I shall let you know how that goes.