May 28, 2008Oprah and MeThis isn't a statement I have cause to make very often, but Oprah and I have something in common right now: we're both on a cleanse. Starting on May 15 and going until the end of June, I'm eating a gluten-free and primarily raw vegan diet. The timing couldn't be more ideal: my weekly organic produce box has been replete with salad greens, stone fruit, and citrus, and Food Fight has inexpensive, perfectly ripe organic avocados in their produce section every time I go there (some days, I buy every last one of them). In preparation of this cleanse, I added a few more raw uncookbooks to my collection, and I've really enjoyed just looking through them for inspiration, even if I don't end up making many of the dishes, or at least not as they're written. I know that there are a lot of people who can't conceive of how anyone could eat a vegan diet without getting bored. "I mean, what do you eat?" is something that I was asked a lot a few years ago (and is one of the reasons that I ended up writing a cookbook, partly just to prove that I eat whatever the hell I feel like eating). But a raw vegan diet is a completely different beast and is, in a word, challenging, especially with a full time job and a five month old baby. I'm not sure if I could do it in the fall and winter months, but I'm having a great time right now eating two avocadoes and at least a cup of nuts and seeds per day and still losing weight. Everyone in the vegan community is wondering if Oprah's cleanse will lead to her becoming a vegetarian. I'm not so sure. It would be wonderful if a decision that was almost certainly motivated by weight loss led to her choosing a more cruelty-free lifestyle, and from her blog entries, it does look like she might choose to reduce her meat intake on a more long-term basis. So will my diet be making a permanent change? Should you be expecting my next book to be called "Yellow Rose Stops Cooking?" Doubtful, dudes. Yes, I feel great and yes, it's much easier to lose weight and keep it off when your food is digested and metabolized immediately. But the thing about raw foods is, well, there is no cooking, just a lot of prep work, and prep work is what I hate about cooking! I don't really enjoy the peeling, chopping, processing, and blending. That is just what I have to do to get to the good part. I like standing over a pot or my cast iron skillet (my skillet! How I miss you!), stirring, tasting, reducing, deglazing, adding a pinch of this and that. Sure, I love a good salad, but I love throwing the salad together while the entree is in the oven, do you know what I mean? Having said that, I know that as the weather heats up here, I will be glad that this experience has added so many oven-free dishes to my arsenal. I would love to hear from you guys about how your diet changes in the summer, or if you like to go on cleanses from time to time to press your body's reset button.
posted by joanna @ 7:24 PM
14 Comments:
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Hi,
Just wondering why you have not got www.veganyumyum.com as a link -I got here from her site
i'm definitely trying to limit gluten (as i think i may have an intolerance) and eat more raw foods, but i'm having a hard time coming up with inspiration. i feel guilty buying new food when i have a pantry stocked full of stuff i could be eating. it's a weird battle. this summer all i want to do is: overcome my emotional eating, once and for all, successfully do 6 weeks of ETL, stop eating refined carbs totally, and go 2 weeks with eating 90% raw foods. sounds simple, right? eh, you're a stronger woman than i, that's for sure! but good luck, seriously. you'll be my inspiration.
heather, have you read "life is hard, food is easy?" i'm an emotional eater, too, and that book really helped to open my eyes to some of my negative patterns. not that i've completely fixed them all, but awareness is the first step, right?
and it's not simple! it's really hard! give yourself credit if you can accomplish even half of those goals. personally, i can't do ETL because i love oil and salt too much. but i had to figure that out about myself with trial and error.
i have not read that book but i am off to the library tomorrow so i will search for it, thanks! i totally agree about awareness. i've gotten to the point where i recognize my bad patterns and i still think that while i haven't overcome them, i'm recognizing it immediately after i do it and that's one step closer to learning to stop.
salt and oil are pretty much my favorite things. i tend to like most of my food overly salty and i blame this on my parents and grandmother. i'm trying to stop, but they're so good. why do the things that are the worst for you have to be the most delicious? regardless, i still want to try 2 weeks of doing it but alas, it will be tough.
i hope your cleanse/detox is going well! you should totally do a few daily eats shots during it because i'm interested in what you're eating.
yes, jo, why don't you have veganyumyum as a link???
jo, mad props to your cleansing skills. i have thought about doing something like this on occasion, but then i'm like "wtf am i thinking??" and the thought passes and i go eat a donut.
i hope to see you soon. i was at the market earlier and thought maybe i'd run into you and milo.
I go on a raw food diet every few months and it's absolutely wonderful. I do agree that the prep part of it is annoying, but the end result is great! Also, even though I have a dehydrator, I rarely use it. When I want to have a "bread", I want it at that instant - not 24 hours from that point. So I just don't use it and not crave anything of the like. You will feel magnificent when you're done. Going on a raw detox is perfect for the beginning of summer since the warm weather can make you feel just plain gross sometimes. Enjoy!!
I'm trying to stick to a raw food diet for myself and occasionally have cooked foods when I have to make food for friends or eat out (I don't have a family, so this is like a couple of times a month). I try to be really simple about my food prep - mostly smoothies for breakfast, a big salad for dinner, and lots of fresh fruit intermittently throughout the day. I find it so refreshing, especially in the summer, when watermelon is abundant!
I am being drawn to a raw vegan diet. I feel so out of balance. My body is trying to tell me to clean up. :o) I hope you can share some of your favorite raw recipes. I send you good thoughts during your cleanse. Have you figured out which raw cookbooks you like the best?
darlin',
i have been eating a lot of yogurt and green smoothies. i am jealous of your stone fruit. we have no local fruit now that the strawberries are gone. i think blueberries are supposed to be coming, but haven't seen them yet. then as far as stone fruit, we only get peaches and i think they're all from alabama. anyway, i'm gonna go make a green smoothie and then plant some spinach and transfer my datura into the garden.
xo
kittee
i tried etl and failed miserably. the no salt, no oil and no grains did me in. i have been having a lot more raw stuff since summer started, but i'm not on a "plan" anymore.
hope your cleanse is going well!
hey there! i've decided to go from being a vegetarian...to becoming a vegan this summer. Woo Hoo! i am ever thankful for living in vegan mecca....PDX!
i too enjoy the detox. i typically do a 3 day liquid fast with raw food before and after. last month i did 5 days raw before my fast and it was...different. i've never craved grains and abhored fat like i did when doing the raw thing. i used ani phyo's raw book and it felt hit or miss. i think the excess of nuts and olive oil was too much for me and i was following the recipes, not my cravings. i do plan to attempt more raw days in the future, but doing a liquid fast really makes me feel less toxic! i talked about it on my blog if you want the details (as well as the raw detox time). (http://www.kimmykokonut.com/2008/05/28/my-typical-liquid-fast/)
i find that in the summer i want to live only on salad -- in the winter, only on soup. fall and spring is when i bother with anything else. :)
xo.dww
Ok - I'm really late to this - for some reason, Bloglines didn't give me your last two posts.
I haven't gone all raw but I am eating at least 1/3 raw, which is much more than I did before. We're having huge salads and about an avocado a day. In the mornings, I am having cooked oatmeal and a fruit smoothie. I feel really good. And when I stuff myself silly at dinner, like last night, I don't feel bad because it was just veggies with a little hummus.
The farmer's market is great for this if you don't have a CSA.