Friday, October 29, 2010

Earth Diet Nine Day Challenge

During my lunch meeting the other day, my co-worker turned to me, looking incredulously at my empty container and said, "Did you actually just eat ALL of that?" She was referring to the ginormous salad which included, among many other things, an entire avocado, that had just moments. Yes, I had eaten all of that. But, I needed to fill up on lots of greens and veggies, because the scope of what I can eat at the moment is pretty limited. My friend, Lauri, and I decided to take the Earth Diet 9 Day Challenge. The premise of this diet is eating things from the earth. Nothing processed. You should eat raw as much as possible. No wheat gluten, no soy, no dairy. No alcohol. No caffeine. (It's partly a detox too. On a longer version of the diet coffee is acceptable. There's also a focus on eating mostly alkaline (vs. acidic) foods.
This last concept is most interesting to me. I've read a little about this, but will continue to explore it. There are those who believe your body won't get sick in an alkaline state, only if it's in an acidic state. I by "sick" they mean cancer, diabetes, things like that. Of course, many things I love (vinegar, condiments) fall into the acidic category. So, I've replaced vinegar with lemon juice to dress my salads (I know, lemon juice seems like it would be acidic, but it's not).
Anyway, I'm on day 5 and I was doing ok up until the little Halloween gathering put on in my division today. I walked in the room and it almost seemed like some sort of cruel joke being played on me. There must have been at least 50 dishes of different kinds of treats, both salty and sweet. Trifle, chips and dip, homemade cookies, bowls of candy bars, chips and salsa - you name it. It was like the office version of Willy Wonka's factory. I daydreamed about floating in the Wonka chocolate river, but in my rendition there tortilla chip plants growing along the river bank and little bowls of salsa floating by on lily pads. I came back to reality and ate my apple.
To try to make myself feel better on my way home I stopped, for the second night in a row, at a raw food cafe that opened last year in Newton. When I was there last night, I noticed they had chocolate pudding (in a raw vegan form) and raw "chips" and salsa. That was what I wanted for my dinner. As it turns out, they only do the chips for lunch, so I got a raw pizza instead. They do a nice job and the presentation is lovely, but let's just say that raw pizza is not for me.
In fact, eating mostly raw is not for me. I have a salad most every day and I think I could get into juicing if I decide to drop $300 on a juicer, but beyond that I think I feel better eating warmed food and cooked grains. I see the benefits of eating raw, keeping all of the nutrients. However, I think especially in the cold weather my body wants warm food. And life without hot soup? No thank you. A couple winters ago, I found myself suffering from acid reflux. When I told my doctor about this and he asked me some questions about what I was eating. I told him I ate a big salad every day for lunch. He said certain Asian food practices say that in the winter when your body is trying to keep warm, eating cold foods can be upsetting. So eating lightly steamed veggies, etc is preferable. I tried that and the acid reflux went away.
Eating raw also makes eating in season difficult. Raw butternut squash? I didn't see that on the menu tonight. The zucchini lasagne I had last night (see photo) was tasty and I could eat that in the summer, no problem. But for now I'd like a steaming bowl of stew.
I had originally planned to post some decadent thing that I can't eat just to show how strong I am, but I just can't do it. Maybe tomorrow...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Michele~~

I am going to try one of these recipes. The photos are great. I love your take on food! Mare

Mare Tomaski said...

Hi Michele~~
I am going to try one of these recipes. Great photos, did you take those of your finished products?

I love your take on food

Mare

Velokat said...

Hi Michele,

An Ayurvedic diet might work better for you as it really emphasizes eating with the seasons (you can and should have warming food in the winter). If you find out your dosha, then you can tailor it for you specifically as well.

Kathy

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