Nah, I just got a little lazy. We spent Labor Day weekend in Virginia Beach and let me tell you, that is not a raw-friendly town. At least not the tourist beachy areas. I drank a lot of juice. I had cucumbers and red onions off the salad bar for dinner on Saturday night. When I tried to salvage dinner by hitting up a smoothie stand on the boardwalk, my request for a smoothie made from just fruit - no ice cream or milk - caused frantic whispering, people coming out from the back to consult, pointing, and repeated requests for confirmation. "No ice cream? No milk?" My $6 glorified orange juice with banana and strawberry blended into it was quite delicious, however, so it was well worth unintentionally making a freak of myself.
My raw/vegan month officially ended on Saturday, and I am back to eating the cooked, and the dairy, and the beans and the meat and the sugar. I interviewed myself to see how the month went, and I've prepared a transcript of the session for you below. If you have other questions, leave them for me in the Comments section and I'll ask myself and get back to you.
You totally cheated, didn't you? There is no way you went a month without cheating.
I guess that depends on how you define cheating. Looking back, I can think of one time that I ate something that was definitely not 100% raw, and three times when I ate something that was probably not 100% raw. The definitely not 100% raw came during my first raw weekend, when I stopped in NYC on the way to Boston. My brother was totally sweet and went out of his way to buy me a salad to eat for breakfast before I got on the bus very early Saturday morning. It was a shredded carrot salad, and it was delicious, and according to the ingredients it had a very small amount of sugar in the dressing. I had other food with me but I needed to save it for the bus ride and the afternoon, and I didn't have time to stop to get anything else. And I really wanted to eat the salad, and I would've felt horrible rejecting it after he went to all the damn trouble. So I ate it. The three probably not 100% raw times are all the same - I ate the same salad at the same restaurant three times during the month, and having looked at the ingredient list for the dressing, I know that the primary ingredients in the dressing are raw and that you can buy a raw version of the other ingredients. It is, however, doubtful that this restaurant actually purchases the raw version of those ingredients. Again, I believe that it was a very small amount. Other than those times, I can honestly say that I stuck within the boundaries I set out for myself.
Nuts are raw, right? How come there were all those nuts at the gas station and you wouldn't eat them?
Nuts aren't raw unless they say they are raw. I think that non-raw nuts were the number one item thoughtfully suggested by well-meaning friends this month.
I think being a raw vegan would be really socially isolating. Was that part hard?
I was surprised, but I did not find this to be the case. I did a ton of social things this month - eating out, bachelor party, baseball game, happy hour - and I managed to stay raw through all of them and while people were curious, nobody was a jerk about it or really even tried to peer pressure me. I will say though that I was fortunate this month because almost every social activity I participated in involved people that I either know well or met through someone I know well. If this had been a month full of cocktail party mingling and business travel, it might have been significantly more challenging from a social standpoint.
Were you bored with the food?
At times, but I don't blame raw veganism for that. I had nice cookbooks and lots of recipes, but it was a busy month and after I developed a routine I pretty much stuck to that. Some things I never got bored with - I loved eating Granny Smith apples chopped up with nuts every day, and I made a lot of taboulli and enjoyed that every time. Last week I ate quite a bit of mixed greens topped with salsa and olive oil.
I've read that raw veganism makes you feel so fantastic - full of energy, clear-minded, and productive. Did that happen to you?
I did feel great this month, light and healthy. And besides a few grouchy days when I wanted to quit, I was pretty chipper all month too. However, I can't say that I felt any better than I do when I eat just a normal healthy diet consisting of lots of fruits and veggies along with lean meat, whole grains and low-fat dairy.
I've read that raw veganism makes your skin and hair dry and makes you pale and listless. Did that happen to you?
Definitely not. I know that very low-fat diets make your skin and hair dry, but I ate plenty of avocado and nuts and cold-pressed olive oil. There was no lack of healthy fat in my diet this month, so no dry skin and hair for me. I did experience very bad menstrual cramps this month, and that was the only negative physical result. Although I don't know, some raw vegan websites blame this on the low magnesium levels that can result from eating exclusively raw vegan food.
What was the best part?
Discovering new foods and learning new things about myself. I really enjoyed some of the food I made this month (spinach and banana smoothies!), and I know I will continue eating those things and incorporating more raw food into my diet. I kept a log of all of my food this month and I'll definitely be looking back at that log the next time I feel like I can't fit in all the fruits and veggies I should.
What was the worst part?
It can be hard to predict your hunger, no matter what you eat. Each day I tried to predict how much food I would need and bring it with me in the morning so I wouldn't get stuck with just juice, or with nothing. This worked well on some days, but on others I would eat more than I planned early in the day and run out of food long before I was due to go home or visit a place where I could buy something raw. On those days I often ended up just being hungry for a long time, and then trying to eat a lot before bed so I would have a little gas in the tank when I woke up the next morning. There were also some days when I would run out of everything but my easy-to-carry, no refrigeration required baggie of raw almonds, and I'd end up having raw almonds for dinner - not exactly balanced. This is something that must get better over time, but the lack of flexibility to just buy something at any old place worked against me during this busy month.
What was the first thing you ate when the month ended? How's the transition going?
I ate Fruity Pebbles on Sunday morning when I got up. I hardly ever eat Fruity Pebbles, but for some reason I started craving them around Wednesday and it never let up. I also ate pizza, and popcorn. The transition is going smoothly - no stomach troubles, just like the transition to raw/vegan. I have been surprised to find that I am not enjoying the foods I've missed as much as I thought I would. I had coffee for the first time this morning, and while I enjoyed it, it suddenly seemed nonsensical that I used to drink it every morning before going raw. I used to drink coffee just on social occasions and perhaps once a week at work, but I'd gotten into the habit of having it every day. That's over, at least for now.
So . . . you're not going vegan/raw forever then?
No. As I said above, I did feel great, but not really any better than I feel on a non-raw healthy diet. I wouldn't hesitate to try raw veganism again in the future, if I get sick or just need a detox. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, but there is an awful lot of tasty food out there that I wouldn't want to rule out on a permanent basis :)
You made cupcakes for work tonight, right? Got a new frosting recipe for us?
Why, I'm so glad you asked! It's a simple variation on the fresh strawberry frosting recipe I posted some months back. I used it to top not-too-sweet yellow cupcakes.
Strawberry-Basil Frosting
10-12 large fresh basil leaves, 20-30 small fresh basil leaves
1/2 pound fresh strawberries
1 stick unsalted sweet cream butter, at room temperature
1 large bag of powdered sugar
In a food processor, puree the large basil leaves and strawberries. Add butter and process. Add half the bag of powdered sugar and process again until incorporated. Add more sugar until frosting is of the desired thickness. (I added it all so I could pipe it onto the cupcakes). Makes a very pretty pale pink frosting, with teeny bright red and bright green flecks in it. Use the small basil leaves to decorate the tops of the cupcakes or cake.
