Monday, Monday...

Hey everybody!

Quite a busy day today -- this marks the 14th day off of caffeine, refined sugar, wheat, dairy, and processed chemicals, and I spent a good portion of it working on some homemade foods that I can eat that are completely raw.

Raw is an interesting definition for those of you that are unfamiliar. It is defined as food that is as close to its natural state as humanly possible. It can be heated up to approximately 120 degrees, but no further as at the 120 degree mark the enzymes within the food begin to break down from the heat. The goal of a raw diet is to monopolize on those enzymes to increase your bodies ability to digest and use the food -- rather that produce large amounts of waste.

It's not a cheap way to eat as organic vegetables and raw nuts are expensive, but I'm finding that it can be done, and can be delicious. If you take a look at my lunch today in the picture above, raw can also be versatile. What you're looking at is what's called a Gorilla Sandwich. The name is actually trademarked. Seriously. So it is a hollowed out cucumber that you cram the fillings into. Its supposed to be one whole piece so you can carry and transport it easily, but I modified it slightly. Inside the cucumber sandwich is some delicious stuff!! There is avocado, tomato, kale, lettuce, sprouts, olives (not raw.. I know. Slap my hand), sunflower seeds and some Jalepeno Jack Almond Cheese. The salad to the side is just made up of the leftovers from the sandwich, and the chips at the bottom are the honey mustard raw potato chips I made in the dehydrator yesterday. (Desmond LOVES them... he nearly ate half my jar of them today.)

I'm keeping track of my calorie intake with a program called Vida Diet and Health, its got a calorie counter, workout trackers, and a bunch of other stuff to help track weight loss and goals. My meals today: Coconut Yogurt with 2 Bananas, mid-morning snack of almonds and some chips, the lunch pictured above, and dinner tonight (1/4 of a Canteloupe) followed up by a homemade Chocolate Coconut Chew (Totally Raw Ingredients) -- totalled 2019 calories. I was STUFFED today. Breakfast was substantial, Lunch was HUGE, dinner was a little light because I had it after I came back from the gym tonight at like 8:00, but I never once felt hungry -- and my food program is telling me to consume 1440 some additional calories. Um No. I'm good. :)

P.S. Homemade Larabars are INCREDIBLE. The recipe found here is perfect as is, tastes identical to the Chocolate Coconut Chew Larabar that Shannon likes so much. It made 10 of them. The nuts are soaked and ready to make the mock tuna salad, the sunflowers are ready to go for refried beans, and with a little pico de gallo, and a lettuce wrap, I've got vegetarian burritos. :)

I'm having a lot of fun with all of this -- and feeling great.

Cheers!