Monday, March 14, 2011

Smooth.

Remember back in January when I said my word for the year was  "explore"? Well, it's not just about travel - last week I took "explore" to the next level: the culinary level. I delved into the world of raw food via Vibe Alive's 7 day raw food challenge. Here's a sensory summary of my week in the raw: 
a berry good breakfast

Taste: Fruit! Vegetables! Really, really, really yummy recipes. Fresh fruit breakfast smoothies, velvety smooth emerald green vegetable juice, crunchy salads with zingy dressings, and the creamiest chocolate pudding I've ever tasted. Oh, the chocolate pudding! I'm not going to tell you what's in it, because you wouldn't believe me!


Smell: Sometime on Tuesday I noticed that Tall Guy smelled. It wasn't sweat or cologne, though, it was more like he had used nail polish remover. I mentioned this to my raw food guide, and she said I was smelling meat! Phew, I'm... relieved? The raw food diet gave me a super power: I can smell when people have eaten meat! How this power will be useful I don't know. I do know that now I will be much more aware and self-conscious when I eat meat - do I smell? At least Tall Guy isn't secretly painting his nails.

You gotta eat your spinach, baby!

Touch: My skin is more hydrated. Since the start of the challenge, I've been drinking a litre of water with lemon juice and cayenne in it before breakfast, a litre throughout the day, and a litre with two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar in it during workouts. Now that's fresh, baby!

Hear: Flushing... Perhaps the most revolutionary idea I learned from the challenge was about, em, poop. Yes folks, poop! According to my raw living guide, we all need to be visiting the bathroom more often. Three times a day, to eliminate whatever your body didn't use from the previous meal. I had never heard this before, but it makes sense to me! I lost nearly two kilograms over 7 days, and I'm pretty sure a lot of it was, um, crap. My waistline is trimmer and I feel lighter, despite eating lots of (healthy) fats and not doing crunches. So yeah, poop.
purple power

See: It's what I don't see that I'm pleased about - no sweat marks! I am sweating less thanks to being uber-hydrated. I also saw, as I mentioned in Taste, beautiful food. Fresh produce is stunning! Going to the grocery store and marveling at the colours is enough to get anyone excited about raw food.

While the experience didn't convince me to go completely raw, I'm very glad I tried it out and will continue to incorporate elements of what I learned into my diet. And seriously, don't knock it till you try it. What's one week? Who knows, you might see some dramatic results. Even if you only feel 1% better than you do now, I guarantee that you'll learn some interesting things about the raw lifestyle, and about yourself, along the way.

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