What are you eating?

"What are you eating?" This is the first and most common question I've gotten from readers and friends about my new raw food diet. So I thought I'd spend some time talking about the food I ate over the last month.



The first thing that I discovered about the raw food diet is that gadgets and appliances reign supreme. While I appreciate all the bells and whistles, my raw food journey is too fresh to start investing in expensive juicers and dehydrators. So, I decided to do the next best thing, blend. I've got a decent blender, and a few months ago I purchased The Ninja Master Prep for 50.00 at wally world. I decided that if it couldn't be made with those two items I wasn't going to eat it.


Now, the raw food world promotes juicing because there is an immediate shock of nutrients and enzymes to the blood stream, without the hassle of fibers that need digesting. Why is this even important?

Because the whole idea of a raw food diet is to alleviate the stress that we place on our digestive system. If we eat foods that take hours and hours to digest (like cooked foods, and, worst of all, animal meat) then our body wastes precious energy on digestion instead of healing. Moreover, the less time it takes for our food to digest, the better our ability to lose weight, because our body has time to process the food instead of storing it as fat. Fruits and vegetables in their raw state are extremely high in enzymes and minerals, plus, our body digests them at a much quicker rate than cooked foods. Juicing goes a step further, eliminating the need to digest and supplying the body with the fuel it needs to heal other things that need attention. It is important to understand this basic principle, because it can make a huge difference in the choices you make when you sit down to eat. Here is a list of the fastest to longest foods to digest:

• Juices and Water: 20-30 minutes
• Soups, Fruits, or Smoothies: 30-45 minutes
• Vegetables: 30-45 minutes
• Grains, Starches: 2-3 hours
• Beans, Poultry, Meat, or Fish: 3 or more hours

Armed with this info, and unarmed with a juicer, I reasoned that eating blended green smoothies would be a great first choice for my new diet. I blogged about my first attempt at the Green Monster Smoothie, and I've since added more to my original version. I add to a blender the following:

1 whole banana 

1 handful each of kale and spinach 

1 stalk of celery 

1 small handful of cilantro, about 1/4 cup 

1 small knob of fresh ginger, about a tbsp 

2 cups of frozen fruit 

2 pitted dates for sweetness 

10 to 12 ounces of coconut water or plain water. 

I blend that until its nice and smooth and this has been my breakfast (and sometimes lunch and dinner) for the last month. The burst of energy you get after drinking this smoothie is amazing! 

Also, I want to be clear that fiber is actually a good thing! Its good fibers from veggies that aid in cleaning out your colon, so please eat as many raw fruits and veggies in their natural state! I just wanted to come up with one item each day that closely resembled juice so that I could speed up my weight loss. I started out drinking a lot of green smoothies, but now that I'm a bit more comfortable, I've moved on to many other choices that are delicious and also easy to make. I'll share some of those in my next post. Until then, feel free to send me an email or post a comment or question below! I am eager to chat about all of this with you!