Overdrive

I feel like my life has kicked into a higher gear but I don't think a whole lot has changed. I know that there is a bit more to juggle with doctors appointment with my kids, which means insurance, authorizations, phone calls, record keeping and gathering and so on. On top of the added "specialists" that both kids are seeing for their different challenges right now, it is the unhappy time for my son's "tri-annual" IEP. This means hours of assessments by the school district, observations, meeting before meetings then the BIG meeting in May. Add all of this into an already really busy life and trying to keep in balance with it all. My business is picking back up because of the time of year and I feel like there are days I can't really catch my breath. I just try to keep moving so I don't sink.

I love eating raw food, my BODY loves eating raw food and my whole family does better eating raw food. This fact being said, raw food takes time to prepare in order to keep it interesting, diverse and balanced. Where in the peep am I supposed to find time for this. My poor kids are getting really used to salads for dinner which isn't a horrible thing and they have fun mixing it up and adding different things.Man, I'll tell you that I reach for convenience wherever I can and sometimes it just ain't rawkin foods. I feel like I am going non stop seven days a week from 5:15am until around 10pm and then I am wiped. I wish there were a raw food drive through. I had heard that Chipotle was a decent place to get good salads and such but now it is my understanding that they have been bought by McDonalds and I do NOT want to support McD's. (yes, I will support the Ronald McDonald Houses but not McD's as a corporation).

I feel so torn and I wish doing what my body loved was easier. I wish I had a personal assistant and a housekeeper. Any suggestions on convenient healthy and fast stuff would be great. We do drop into Whole Foods for a salad on the go or some cheesy kale for car rides.

Discoveries

I am sort of getting addicted to trying something new or trying something I knew different. It's like a whole new world, this raw food stuff. It's not enough to make delcioius flax crackers but I get to play at "what if I do this???" and then it turns out different. I have never had so much fun cooking in my life. For example, instead of putting the flax seed stuff in the food processor, I put it in my Vita-Mix which almost killed the poor blenderbut it made a completely different texture to the cracker which made it really yummy. We did the same with toaster tarts-which the blender was much more agreeable to, and they turned out SO smooth and really like bread. I think with those, I need to turn up the temp on the dehydrator in order to get the crust to be crisper. It's all experimentation.

We found that blue berries in fruit leather, while still good, are not as good as kiwi fruit or peaches. Something about the tart makes them yummy. We found that putting peaches in the muffins is not as good as putting bananas. The kids report the peaches to make them too sweet. Imagine that?! I've tried several different pesto recipes and figured out the less zesty one hits our preference. We tried mashed potatoes-not a good thing. FYI, cauliflower did not make it as a potato substitute for me. I tried chicken fingers but they tasted more like bad corn flakes. I am hoping to achieve a good pecan burger later in the week. It is so much fun to experiment. There are SO many recipes out there and variations. Once you get started playing, the possibilities are endless. Trying one recipe gives me an idea for another recipe or tweaking something I've already tried. This is RAWKIN fun! So many discoveries!

Busy evening with work so we just did salad again for dinner but the kids topped their day off with peach pie. Soaking almonds to make almond milk and maybe some almond raisin cookies tomorrow. Bought some alfalfa sprout to try out the Nori rolls. Also have wonderful looking tortillas to make enchiladas tomorrow. I am SO excited about those. I will post pictures of that for sure! My daughter is reporting that she may never go off raw food-and she was the one most pensive about trying raw. She has also reported her taste buds are getting more sensitive and the dressing was too much for her tonight so it is time to start letting up on the saltier stuff and let the true taste of food come through more. How cool is it to hear a 9 year old become so aware! I'll let you know what we discover tomorrow! :) RAWK on!

Need to Go Hard Core

Due to the family getting so shakey yesterday on cravings, I decided to read up on Rawkin diets. The one thing that hit me hard in my reading was that going "mostly" raw makes it SO much harder then going 100% raw. Something about the philosophy that eating SOME cooked foods, even a little, keeps you connected to them and cutting them out makes a clean break for your body and mind. Supposedly the cravings go away and stay away after a few days to a week of 100% raw. I can see how that would make sense.

My daughter especially was so pensive about RAWKIN that I agreed to not go hard core on the family. I allowed the steel cut oatmeal and brown rice. I even allowed croutons in salad and organic tortilla chips on occassion. I had leftover saltine crackers-a mother's staple food for stomach virus problems that float in and out of a house, and I caught my daughter eating a few of those one day. She is especially staying connected to "the other side". This might be why days like yesterday were so much more dramatic for her.

I also was worried that going hard core on kids would shock them into absolute disapproval. Going slow, although more painful in the craving department perhaps, was easier in the mental and emotional department. Pre-teens especially need to "buy-in" to the journey because one wrong turn and they will assert their little unfiltered, arrogantly ignorant, hormonal based wills and may not try it again until they are 37. By conceding to their having some control on this process with oatmeal and brown rice, I gave them the power to make this journey with me. As the weeks have gone on, my daughter has announced that foods she didn't like weeks ago she now really loves. The flax seed crackers were "disgusting" to her when we began this journey together and today she ate 6 of them at lunch and a few with almond butter and honey for a snack. (This whole time, I have been insisting that she eat one a day) She has actually requested more! (of course I have to remember what in the world I put in that last batch...oh well...it's an adventure) She even ate sliced tomato today and has NEVER done that. So, I think the time has come to take the final step...go hard core.

We talked about it tonight and have agreed that as the non-raw things run out, they will not be replaced. It is for the good and sanity of the whole family to see what it is like to be 100% RAWKIN. No cheating. We also talked about how good we are all feeling, in general. My daughter is reporting that her tremors, while still there, seem to be less. My son is reporting better energy. I don't know that I have more energy but I really do feel better in my body. How good we feel is really motivating us to keep going. It really is great to have the kids support and for them to feel my support of them. I am finding that really talking with my kids and getting them in on the reasoning, the science behind food, raw nutrition and health is really making us closer. They seem to trust me more and are opening up to my hopes for us as a family and individually.

They are beginning to ask questions about why food is so processed and why people don't change more when it is proven to be more detrimental to the health of the body. They are asking why people stay sick. My ex-husbands mother is fighting cancer and I have talked to her about going raw and different methods of bettering her nutrition and she has refused. I figure that she doesn't want to LIVE a different way and that's her choice but I think kids don't understand as easily. To them, it is more simple and black and white, "if this MIGHT help, why wouldn't she try it?" So much research and science out there on all sides and what I am telling the kids is that everybody is making the best choices for themselves with what they want or can handle. There are many who would disagree with me on my choices as much as I would disagree with the guy at the McDonald's drive thru right now but it is HIS choice and mine is MY choice. I am so proud to have an opportunity to teach my kids this level of difference and acceptance.

This morning we made juice with apple and carrots but it was too sweet for me so I added broccoli, cucumber, ginger and celery to balance it out. The kids and I worked out together which was a lot of fun and a weekend treat. They made a yummy banana strawberry pudding for breakfast with dehydrated sprouted buckwheat. Lunch for them was the last of the veggie falx crackers and raw almond butter. I later made up some more guacamole which was delicious! Dinner went awry as I had left the mushrooms in the fridge too long-bad planning-so we had a delicious salad with sunflower seeds and hemp heart. My son went off to a play date where they were having spaghetti for dinner so I whipped out a pizza crust and threw on some toppings and he was happy as can be. I have almonds and dates soaking, wheatberries srpouting, buckwheat sprouting, walnuts soaking and flax seeds soaking for tomorrows mass food prep. We are runnning out of basics and I need to dig in and build our stock piles back up. I am finding that we are eating less and less and the concept of the S.A.D. and 3 meals a day is beginning to fade. I am glad we have begun this journey before school starts so we can figure out our own rhythym with Rawkin. We RAWK on!

It's Not So Hard

Going "raw" has presented many challenges and has forced me to really think about things differently. One of the chief objections that people have for my raw-ed-ness is that they have heard it is "so much work". I would not say that doing this is more work but it is more thought. I don't think that is such a bad thing, either. I think processed food and the marketing that has surrounded it keeps getting more and more thoughtless, more and more unconcscious and more about quick, thoughtless, brain dead, instant gratification meals. Raw is quite the opposite. So here I go swimming up stream.

There are aspects of raw food that are easy, fruits, veggies, salads, etc but then there are aspects that take more thought. In order to plan several recipes, one can not just go pull the ingredients out of the cupboard, add water and go. Several recipes call for sprouted nuts or seeds. Well, who do you think sprouts them? Yep, I do. Sprouting by the way is a lot easier then I first gave it credit. Rinse, cover and go-repeat several times a day and like MAGIC...little sprouts appear. It's kind of fun to watch and if left over time the smallest amount of food multiplies like little aliens taking over your bowls.

For example, to make the muffins my kids seem to like so much, I must first sprout wheat berries. Now, as I mentioned earlier, this is not difficult but it does take planning. At least two days prior to wanting to prepare these muffins I must start the sprouting process. Then I must remain concious enough so that whenever I walk through my kitchen I give them a little rinse once in awhile. This part makes me smile as I sometimes tell them hello...of course I lead a lonely life of a single Mom, work-a-holic and speaking to sprouting seeds is probably not a necessary part of the process.

After achieving sprout I then get to mix the ingredients in a food processor but alas, no muffins today. I roll them into cute little balls and put them in my handy dandy dehydrator and wait one more day. Now we have achieved muffin. Now, none of that was difficult but staying conscious of timing and such was a different use of my energy. Once it came down to the food processor, it only took a few minutes. All in all, I've prepared casseroles that have taken longer when actual time is stacked against actual time but casseroles are a wham bam thank you ma'am kinda meal...boil it, blend it, throw it in a dish, bake it and be done. Rawkin muffins take my brain power.

One of the benefits of rawkin is that the kids become more self-sufficient. My son now gets up and makes his own breakfast and has a variety of options adding dehydrated sprouted buckwheat or sprouted granole mixes into fruit or a muffin or more. My daughter is still switching back and forth between steel cut oats and rawkin breakfast combos like her brother makes. The oatmeal lasts longer and longer as time goes on. The rawkin breakfast is beginning to taste better.

Throughout the day, they snack on raw food items like flax crackers or other recipes with some sort of dip or even have some veggies and dip. My son and I are quite pleased with sprouted almonds because just a few of them satiate the appetite and give lots of energy. I read that the sprouting process wakes up some enzymes that actually help the body digest more of the protein and amino acids so it takes less food to satiate the body. This brings me to my last point that raw food seems to be cheaper or equivelant in groceries.

The initial outlay for rawkin was uncomfortable but now that we are used to it and getting into a rhythym it is actually seeming less then typical or regular groceries. Because we are more satiated, we are eating less. Food is going much farther and we are getting a lot more out of it. The down fall is that rawkin makes more trips to the grocery store to buy fresh produce more often. We are going through our fresh fruits and veggies quicker and need to keep fresh and yummy stuff on hand. I find that keeping a variety of fresh fruits and veggies on hand is helping my mind stay focused and not wander into the processed food it sometimes misses because it is bored or feeling lonely. That's a subject for another day but making sure I can pull out a handful of grapes or grab some quick carrots on the go is helping keep my focus.

I understand from reading books on the subject that our impulsive eating will pretty much go away and the desires will change so I suppose my brain power will change, too. So, I wouldn't say there is a lot more work involved in rawkin but I would say there is more thought. I'm not sure how this will pan out in the scheme of things but I am feeling like it is just going to require a shift in thinking as opposed to thinking more.

Currently in the making are some beanless falafels, some peach muffins and the crust of mini toaster tarts...I am sprouting barley and rice for gourmet pizza crusts (never knew you could sprout rice) and have on hand almond meal from fresh made almond milk and soaked dates and sprouted wheat berries to make cinnamon rolls. Trying to keep the varieties up a bit and kids full and happy.

What is RAW food and for heaven's sake WHY?

Whenever I tell people that I am or have gone "raw" I usually get contorted faces of disgust wondering why I would ever want to subject myself to such a thing. Many think I am eating raw eggs and meat. I am not eating raw eggs or meat. I have no intention of subjecting myself to food poisoning. Raw food is a way of eating that is all nuts, seeds, fruits and veggies in various forms and combinations.
I was first subjected to "raw" food when I was studying kundalini yoga and sound healing. Most of what I experienced was made in a blender and was a bit too spicy for my taste. I usually went to these events smuggling in granola bars to sustain me as I politely sipped my baby food. I'm not saying what I was served was not good, it probably was delicious but I could not tolerate it for whatever reasons being physical, emotional, spiritual or just plain not my desired food combinations.
Working in the "wellness" industry, I have lots of folks in various stages of seeking health. Very few come in with McDonald's and there is a lot of discussion about nutrition. As I am a larger kinda gal who works out regularly, eats pretty darn healthy but still battles a slower then average thyroid and genetics that really like fat to stay on my body, I prompt a great deal of critiques from my yoga students, pilates students and bodywork clients. Still big and bending like a pretzel don't seem to match in peoples minds, but possible none the less.
I have been all organic or at least mostly organic for years. I believe in the power of nutrition. My son, who has autism, has taught me the power of nutrition in healing. Modifying his diet early on changed his behavior dramatically. Dieting has been in and out of my life more than men or good dates and I have tried everything to break my sugar habit (sometimes successful-sometimes not) from Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, medicine, herbs, standing on my head and whistling dixie.
One day a yoga student told me that her daughter had gone all "raw" and was eating delicious recipes. She asked me if I had ever heard of the program, which I had not and later brought me a DVD of this woman cooking raw food. It looked so easy and delicious but I still had a bad taste in my mouth from kundalini. I held off but it ate at my brain.
Several months later, I decided I would buy some equipment to head into the raw direction. For my birthday, I got a dehydrator. Not your average birthday present but it meant I did not have to commit right away because I had not spent MY money on it. My dehydrator sat in it's box for months. Maybe half a year later, I decided to go on some websites and find a class. I took my tax return money and signed up. At this point, I got the dehydrator out of the box and gave my first go at "going raw".
The class was SO MUCH FUN! I enjoyed learning the basics that I was fumbling over and we made delicious raw italian food. I went 100% raw for about two and a half weeks until my children got a pizza and my will power went down the toilet. The pizza won. It tasted AWFUL but I stomached it and then convinced myself that I could live in both worlds. I took another class and became certified to teach raw food cooking to others. I had so much fun but I found it extremely difficult to prepare raw foods for myself while preparing regular foods for the kids. Not only was I doing twice the work but my old programming went the way of tortellini before it went the way of raw. I tip-toed in and out of raw-ness for the next several months with varying reactions in my body but never stayed there long enough to really go for it.
Recently my daughter seemed to start getting sick on most dairy products which prompted me to re-examine our diet and nutrition. My son's fixation is global warming so we are already mostly vegetarian to reduce our carbon foot print. He has been asking to go vegan for awhile but I did not support it because I wanted to make sure he would get enough protein. With my daughter's intestinal objections to dairy and meat already pretty much out of the picture, I picked up my books on raw food and re-examined the issue.
I called a family meeting and asked the kids if they wanted to go for it and got a thumbs up from my son and a pensive thumbs up from my daughter as long as I still allowed oatmeal and brown rice in case she didn't like what was being served. I agreed and three weeks ago we began our journey as a family into being raw. Being hip and cool to my pre-adolecent children and building my own enthusiasm for this new lifestyle, we have titled our journey together as the RAWKIN ADVENTURE! Did you hear the enthusiasm? We make RAWKIN food! We are a RAWKIN family! You gotta feel it by now.
It has been an interesting three weeks so far with some success and some failure but our commitment grows stronger as our journey goes on. I want to chronicle this journey as we examine how changing our perspective on food, it's preperation, our health and the social impact we face doing it "different" then the S.A.D. (Standard American Diet) and all that society places on it's importance. Take what you like and leave the rest but know that I am NOT preaching nor trying to be idealistic, I am simply trying to do what is best for my kids, myself and be honest about the ups, the downs and the all the way arounds. Hopefully with some humor and a lot of reality.