Day 23

Alissa's guacamole rocks especially with 2 extra cloves of garlic! heh heh

Her wakame cucumber salad is not bad too. I used equal parts of tamari and lemon juice with some sesame seed for dressing - nice.

Started reading Marshall Rosenberg - Nonviolent Communication.

Day 22

Today I made sprouted chick pea hummus from Alissa's book. On its own, I didn't like the hummus so much. I'd use less lemon and salt than the recipe recommends, and probably add in a clove or 2 of garlic as well!

HOWEVER, when I tried the hummus with Igor's flat bread - MY GOD. It was SO good.

I ate alot of jicama today - we call is bang kwang here in Singapore. I bought a real whopper from Cold Storage this morning. I turned half of it into "rice" using the raw food real world sushi rice recipe, and the other half into Alissa's spicy fries - which are really really odd. They look like soggy McDees but they really don't taste ANYTHING like fries... I don't know what I was thinking. The recipe should've said it all - apple cider vinegar and honey? Hmm.

Day 21

Both my sinuses are blocked this morning!
Ran 20 mins, jogged remaining 10 mins.

Tried Alissa's Banana-Papaya pudding - not bad but I prefer a papaya on its own when they're as good as they are now!
Finished off the Banana Butter Berry Pie. Yum :)

Tried to make "Tuna Phish" sushi rolls from Gabrielle Chavez's book but didn't like how they turned out. And realized I was using toasted nori - oops - heh heh.

I have to talk Nature's Glory into sourcing untoasted nori... and raw almond butter!

I made Gabrielle's Black Halvah balls for dessert, using agave & stevia instead of honey. YUMMMY!!! -> Highly recommended.

Day 20

Feeling a little better today but my right sight sinus is still a little blocked from yesterday.
Papaya's are back in season and are wonderfully sweet and fragrant right now. I had one for breakfast... hmmm...

Day 19

I woke up a little shaky... my feet still hurt and I still feel feverish. I could only manage 15 minutes of meditation this morning, the environment and especially the nearby road noise and construction really disturb me - I have to wake up earlier to meditate.

Alissa's watermelon soup is delicious!

Day 18

Had a great ISIS this morning with Ceri! I'm finally back on track with the meditation.

Have been feeling a little funny since afternoon... I ate a TON of flax crackers and now the soles of my feet have started to hurt with a little visible swelling on the tops of my feet.

I'm starting to feel a little feverish as well.

Day 13

Staying raw through Chinese New Year has been fun... ho ho. I have been eating so many mandarins, maybe a dozen today!

I have an addiction for tahini and almond butter... I have been consuming them by the spoonfulls.

Day 12

Well, skin still greasy and lots of little stuff growing on it. heh heh.

Pooping frequency is down to once a day and I think its due to the massive amounts of delicious flax bread that I've been eating. Igor's live flat bread recipe... its delicious.

Breakfast smoothie was good today. It had

2 Thai mangoes
1 frozen banana
2 stalks celery
2 bunches kai lan
2 Tbsp sesame seed

Day 8

I've been getting my dizzy spells more intensely than usual. I've also not been exercising as vigorously as I used to (because of the broken hand). The last time I felt such strong dizzy spells was probably at Hilary's when I was water fasting in Ko Samui... My mum, a mainstream doctor, says its hypoglycemia. From what I've read in natural health, they describe it as part of the detox process. Sticking with the natural camp on this one, for now, of course.

Day 7

I can definitely feel something happening in my body, though I don't know what exactly.
Cravings are starting to go away. 2 nights ago I was at my mum's for dinner (I made a smoothie) - but the others were having lap chiong fan - an old favourite. It was quite easy not to eat it though.

Made Alissa's raw marinara today. It was SO DAMN GOOD. I made it a little differently from the book - I used dried parsley instead of fresh parsley because Kim abhors parsley. Also, after the marinara was made, I blended another 3 tomatoes separately and stirred those into the mix instead - gave a more watery, fresher texture to the marinara, I thought.

I made zucchini pasta, and I had the pasta in the dehydrator for about an hour to let the excess water dry - nice result! The final spaghetti in marinara sauce was the best I'd ever made... I can still taste it. Hmm... now if I'd just made some RAW MEAT BALLS! Pity the suckers take 200 hours to dry or something.

I ate a whole pint of coconut ice cream for dessert, which I savoured over the ending of Lady in the Water, and went to bed right after. That can't have been good.

Day 6

Not feeling so good today - might be the cups of dried fruit & nut I chowed down last night, or the de-alcoholized wine Ambrose brought over, of the difficulty in sleeping with my broke hand - or maybe just everything!

Kim's smoothie for breakfast! Funny, she likes a salty smoothie instead. It had celery, tomatoes, carrot & lemon juice. It made me really happy to see my partner making today's smoothie when she was always icked out by my blended drinks before. Woo hoO!

My da jie just brought home a 9-tray Excalibur from Vancouver and she's parked it with me, with the task of providing her with some raw munchies. I started with flax crackers and the vinegared raw potato chips (Alissa's recipes). Potato chips are so-so but the flax crackers are delicious, and have been a hit with everyone that's tried them!

I also made the Pumpkin Pie from Alissa's book - kick ass!!!

Started reading Thich Nhat Hanh - Anger

Day 5

I broke my left hand this time.

At the hospital, I asked for the nurse to have a look at my records to see when it was that I had broke my right hand before - June 2005.

I spent some time wallowing in self-disappointment over the repeat circumstance - losing to the flames and smashing a limb into a hard object - but I'm busy looking for my lesson now. For a while, it felt as if I'd made no progress with my self-improvement process... but now I know its not true. I have!

Kim made my breakfast smoothie today, the sweetie :)

Day 4

Today I decide to have faith that living foods will take care of my hair loss. I no longer use Minoxidil / Regaine / Growell on my scalp.

I had lunch at Yogi Hub where Lily made me a very refreshing 100% raw salad and also a raw nato sushi roll, which among other greens & sprouts, contained fermented black bean sprouts - delicious! My dad (not raw) didn't think it was as tasty, but his taste buds are probably accustomed to saltier foods.

Day 3

I feel shitty today. My mind is foggy and my stomach is uncomfortable. I don't know if it was from eating too much yesterday or if I'm detoxing all the rubbish I ate over the last 3 weeks. I had so many nasty dreams - of visiting the house where I grew up in a dilapidated state, of being bitten by a little dog, worst of all of eating cooked food - eating lumps of baked meat and coin-sized pizzas with Kim. I'm tired.. just thinking about yesterday's fettu alfredo makes me sick.

Today I start reading John Robbins - The Food Revolution.

Today's breakfast smoothie:
1/4 watermelon
1/2 a fuji apple (Kim's leftover)
1 grapefruit
3 big stalks of celery

Yummiest celery smoothie I've ever had - I highly recommend! You could probably leave out the apple without consequence.

Finished off the day with ice cream. This time I put 10 cubes of coconut ice cream with a big dash of maple syrup (yes, I know, not exactly raw). The ice cream tasted great - even Kim liked it - much like Gula Melaka. Hmm maybe I can make a raw chendol.

Day 2

I tried Alissa's Fettuccine Alfredo recipe today. I was chuckling to myself as I innocently blended *3* whole cups of nuts (I used cashew, pine & brazil). Fred -low fat- Patenaude and Alissa -whatever it takes to stay raw- Cohen have very different approaches heh heh. I couldn't handle my cooked food cravings with Fred's approach so this time around we'll go with eating lots of fat if necessary to stay raw.

Anyway, after chomping through about half of my Alfredo (zucchini & local pumpkin for pasta), I just couldn't stomach another bite.

Much later in the night I made a whopping third of a vitamix of dessert - 6 cubes of coconut ice cream (raw food/real world recipe), 2 frozen bananas, juice of a lemon and a tbsp of honey. I enjoyed it very much!

Day 1

First, let me bridge the big gap from the last entry. Ashamedly, I haven't been raw much for the past 3 weeks. I was doing really well, and then I fell off the bandwagon. With Kim's parents visiting, a trip to Vietnam, and then camping in the NUH ward to keep Kim company, the only resemblance left of a raw diet was my morning smoothie and of course, raw desserts.

I've been doing A LOT of emotional overeating.

But now here we go, here we go. I've just started reading Alissa Cohen's book and its perky attitude has got me jump started. I've got my journal, my list of goals, my growing list of activities I love, and a commitment to at least 30 days of 100% raw. This is not going to be easy with Chinese New Year around the corner... but there's never been a better time than now! :)

So today is Day 1. Starting from scratch now!