jan. 11, day 11 of raw foods

I’ve still got the munchies! I even briefly thought about how great it would be to have some Pepsi. But I’m not feeling any desire to eat or drink anything that’s not part of my eating plan right now. However, I have made other decisions: I have decided not to look for raw hummus as long as the hummus I’m eating now is working for me. Same with the taboule; if I have problems finding quinoa to sprout, it won’t bother me to stay with bulgar. The more I read about raw food, the more I realize that I have to do what works for me and to not get caught up in labels. Calling myself a raw foodist implies that everything I eat is raw, but I’m really eating just mostly raw. I can’t say what percentage raw I eat because I don’t know what standards raw foodists use to label themselves, and I’m not really interested in fitting into a label.

It’s hard to not get caught up in labels like “vegetarian” and “vegan” and “raw foodist” when, instead of labeling our behavior, we label ourselves! Just now I rewrote some of my previous sentences because I realized I had said things such as, “what percentage raw I am ” instead of “what percentage raw I eat“. I can see why some raw foodists, vegetarians and vegans become strident; many of them identify with what they eat. They feel compelled to personally defend their way of eating because they are actually defending their own identities. This doesn’t apply to all people who commit to particular eating styles, but it certainly applies to many I’ve come across on the internet. For some raw foodists (and vegetarians and vegans) this way of eating is part of a spiritual endeavor, making it even more understandable why, for some, it is part of their identity. For me, because I’ve had food “issues” for much of my life, calling myself something based on my eating behavior doesn’t feel good, so I want to stay away from that. I’m sure I’ll lapse often (I haven’t read over my past posts to see how often I may have labeled myself), so it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out over time.

Well, enough of my opinions on that topic! Here is what I’ve eaten so far. Oh- I remembered that during my day of munchies yesterday I had a mango close to midnight. I have therefore added that to today’s snacks. Today I purposely had a piece of fruit for breakfast, as I’d decided to do earlier. It worked fine today, although my snacking increased my calories this evening.

>BREAKFAST (around 9:45 a.m.)

1 banana

LUNCH

1/2 Avocado

Green Giant Spring Mix Salad, 1 cup

Baba Roasted Garlic Hummus, 1/2 c

Taboule Salad, 1/2 c

DINNER

1/2 Avocados, California

2 leaves romaine lettuce

Baba Roasted Garlic Hummus 1/2 c

Taboule Salad, 1/2 c

SNACKS

Raw Sharp Cheddar Cheese, Organic Valley, 1 oz

Apple

Organic Raw Black Sesame Tahini (Living Tree), 1 tbsp

Flax Seed Crisps, RAW, Mauk Family Farms, 1 oz

Goji Berries, dried (Himalania) 1/2 tbsp

Mango

Total calories

CALORIES 1,726 CARBS 213 FAT 73 PROTEIN 49