What a Day....

I've come to That Point in my raw diet. There appear to be several benchmarks (for want of a better word) that I reach in the early stages of my raw odyssey. One is a point where I've eaten the same thing over and over and start to get bored. There's also a point where I have little time or energy to put ingredients together and find myself eating some nasty combination of veggies in a makeshift salad. Today I was running late and threw together the most tasteless group of veggies you can think of (I won't recount them for you or you may feel as sick as I did). As I sat during a lunchtime seminar at my job, eating my nasty salad, I actually realized I was contemplating a trip to the bathroom to purge the contents of my stomach. It was that bad. Sigh...

So now I have a new quest: to go through my blog history and refresh my memory of the stuff I used to eat, then find a way to prepare salads and other meals using the tastier and easiest-to-prepare ingredients. I know that when I am bored and unsatisfied, I am more likely to stray from my raw diet in the early stages of transforming my eating. I think being in this alone adds to the difficulty. When I had a partner we both shared in the food ideas and meal preparations, shared the shopping duties, and reminded each other of why we are doing this. We also told each other how great we were looking, how loose our clothes were getting, how good we were being to our bodies, etc. I'm not good at telling myself this stuff, so going it alone is more difficult in ways I hadn't previously considered. Having a nutritionist is a big help. Now, if she would just move in and cut up my veggies for me!

Speaking of the nutritionist, I have lost more weight. I'm now down about 18 lbs since June 10th. At 20 lbs lost she'll take my measurements again. I have noticed my pants are a tad looser, but that thrill of knowing I am truly on my way hasn't hit me yet. I used to get overjoyed at losing weight. I'd have the next lower sized pants hanging in the closet and I would make bets on how long it would be before I'd fit into them. I don't have that joy anymore, perhaps because I've been there, done that. Or maybe I'm more focused on health then size - I do get joyful over improvements in my cholesterol and BP levels, after all! I would like to have that joy in other areas again, though. I remember how much I loved my achievements in the gym a few years ago, and how much fun it was to give away a new pile of "fat" clothes.

The stress of being a grad student probably interferes with that joy a little, too. Between the dissertation research, comprehensive exam studies, and growing work responsibilities, I am stressed out quite often- in fact, I am pretty good at being stressed! So good that my blood pressure was 120/90. The nutritionist said that stress (and not drinking enough water) are two things that can raise the lower number. Both of those are issues for me, so I am going to try meditation, and will try to do better with the water.

NOTE:
Don't know if it's my aging eyes, but the old white-on-black text was starting to get to me. Was it bugging you? As you can see, I am making changes to this blog's layout. These may continue over the next few days (or weeks, depending on how much doodoo I get into after the initial switch). I want to be up-to-date with Blogger's technologies, and this blog has been a little behind. What I'd most like to do is make comments visible at the bottom of each post, and make the colors a little easier on the eyes. What will actually happen may surprise us all!

Touched by an Angel?

You ever wish that someone or something would suddenly appear and save you from yourself? Well, I've always thought, in my worst moments, that the only way I'd stop my downward spiral of eating the wrong foods and getting more and more unhealthy was for either a "guardian angel" to step in, or some horrible health crisis to hit me and shock me back to common sense.

Well, I had a taste of the health crisis this week. I've been slowly morphing to a vegetarian/raw diet, but not quickly enough. I'd been feeling tired, sleepy and generally icky for a while and finally went to the doctor, mainly because my nutritionist wanted bloodwork. While there I saw how high my BP had gotten, and the doctor said my breathing problems could be caused by both allergies and sleep apnea. I had the prescription for Allegra filled, but eschewed the sleep test.

I felt decent the next day- not sleepy or as bad as usual. What a nice break! But the following day was strange. I woke up feeling extra tired and knew it would be a bad day. I had to fast for the 10 a.m. blood test so I went to work with no breakfast. It may have been partly because of that and partly because of whatever has been going on with me, but I felt worse and worse with every hour. I felt a tightness in my chest that seemed related to my wheezing, had a headache, was exceptionally worn out, and even had a strange anxiety/panicky feeling and shakiness. I made sure to drink water, and then went to get my blood drawn. I told the folks at work I wouldn't be back that day.

After the clinic, I seriously considered going to the ER, but remembered that I hadn't eaten, so I went to 7-11 and bought a Naked Juice protein smoothie - I was actually going for the natural sugar and carbs for quick energy but saw the protein version (38 gms per bottle) and figured it couldn't hurt. I guzzled that thing down- all 500 calories of it (whew!). Within 15 minutes I felt about 60% better. The chest tightness and anxiety went away. I was still feeling I should go to the ER but I went home to relax instead. I napped for a few hours and when I woke up I wondered again if I should go to the ER because I still wasn't totally well. I decided to go to the grocery store and check my blood pressure. If it was in the danger zone I'd go to the ER. The machine read 154 over 89. Much higher than I've seen it, but, according to the pharmacist, not worthy of an ER visit.

I vowed right then to stop putzing around with the gradually-going-raw thing and jumped back into a high-raw diet. High raw for me is this: every day I will eat raw fruits and vegetables and drink lots of water with lemon or lime juice. In addition, I will include any of the following protein or fiber-rich foods (raw or cooked as appropriate to the item): fish, tofu, oatmeal, Eggbeaters, hemp seeds and whey protein. I have already begun to drink more water, and I brewed tea to give me a non-caffeinated, non-sugary alternative to water. I love diet Snapple, but I'll stay away from its faux-sugar tastiness for the time being. I'm drinking my remaining Pepsi Jazz this weekend, and will not buy any more colas. (I will try sparkling water, though!)

Today I bought some fruits and vegetables, a manual citrus juicer, and a couple of Whole Foods salad bar items. No cheese- that's a miracle, folks! I do love me some cheese, you know. I got parsley for my salads (more nutritious than lettuce) and some raw pecans.

I feel good today. I don't really know why I felt so horrible the other day - I actually imagined at one point that I might be a step away from dying. How could I feel so terrible one day and feel normal the next? All I know is I'm treating it as a wake-up call. A knock on the side of the head from my guardian angel, perhaps. She knows I have to learn everything the hard way.

Hey raw community- I'M BAAAAAACK!!