One week. I survived a week!

Well, it is still a little premature to say it, since there are a few more hours left for the day, but I think I can safely say that these hours should pass without me faltering on the diet.

One week of raw food. 21 meals of uncooked food. Nothing heated above 115F, and since I don’t have a dehydrator that meant only room temperature food. But I survived and live to tell!

The basic principle of eating raw is to consume a diet of primarily (or exclusively) un-cooked whole plant food (75-100% of the time). The diet is centered around fruits, vegetables, nuts (in moderation), and seeds (in moderation), nothing cooked above 115F. While you can choose to be only 75% raw, I thought since I am doing it for a week, I would go completely raw.

This is the first time I have ever tried a crazy diet idea and seen it to full completion.

After my triathlon, I was looking for another challenge to focus my energy on, and thought the idea of going raw for a week seemed challenging enough. Plus I had heard of the benefits of people going raw, besides the obvious weight loss, people see an increase in one’s energy, vitality, and normalize weight problems. Raw foods also aid in firmer, youthful skin, radiant appearance, stronger nails and hair, something I was in desperate need of. Of course a week of this diet is not enough to see all the above changes, but I hope that with this one week cleanse/detoxification, I would try include more raw food in my regular diet.

I started the month of October with a gluten free and sugar free diet, which I will continue through the whole month of October. Bottomline of all this dieting is that I want to lose weight! Along with the gluten and sugar free diet, I plan to follow my regular exercise routine of running, cycling, gymming and yoga. But this week when I went raw, I did not exercise too hard, practicing just yoga breathing exercises and a few light yoga asanas. Since I wasn’t taking in too many calories, I did not want to overdo with the exercising just to quit on the diet because I was on the verge of fainting!

Since October 1st, I have managed to lose a little more than 2 kgs (about 5 pounds). It might not seem too much, but I am happy with it because honestly I wasn’t going for a drastic decrease in my weight. Besides the weight loss, I feel my stomach has gone flatter and an overall reduction in inches all across my body. I also see a nice glow on my skin and hope that being sugar free this month would help in keeping my skin clear.

And since I still plan to be on a GF and sugar free diet this whole month, I am hoping the transition from raw food to regular food would be more sensibly smooth, without me jumping on cakes and cookies tomorrow!

I will keep you up to date with how the rest of this month goes, and whether I achieved my goal weight for this month.

For my last day I made this raw corn chowder. I was a little scared of this recipe (like all other raw recipes), but it actually wasn’t too bad. It’s more of a hot weather soup- since its supposed to be served cold (like all raw food!), but you wouldn’t mind it. In fact I can’t think of having this hot. With the chowder I made a mixed green salad as well.

It was the perfect end to a hard week. I am already looking forward to tomorrow. In fact I have been so anxious for tomorrow that I got up at 6.40 in the morning today and thought it was already Monday. When I saw V still sleeping, I woke him telling him that he is late for work. He just stared at me and said, breaking my day-dream where finally I was putting hot food in my mouth, that it’s Sunday and went back to sleep.

Anyway tomorrow is just a few hours away and I have decided my menu. I break the diet with a GF khaman dhokla for breakfast. For lunch I will have chicken stew and appam and end the day with probably a cheese omelet for dinner ( I am a fan of breakfast for dinner).

For now, here is another raw recipe.

RAW CORN CHOWDER

Adapted from here

4.0 from 1 reviews
Raw Corn Chowder
 
Prep time
Total time
 
Recipe type: raw
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 3 ears of corn, husked and silk removed
  • 2 tsp chia seeds
  • 1 avocado , coarsely chopped
  • juice from ½ lime
  • 1 small jalapeno, seeded and deveined, chopped
  • 1½ tsp sea salt (don’t leave out the salt, it makes a huge difference! Decrease if you aren’t a salt fan)
  • 11/2 cup cold water
  • 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • ¼ cup walnuts, chopped very finely
Instructions
  1. Place one ear of corn base down in the center of a large plate and hold upright with one hand. With a sharp knife, cut off corn kernels from top to bottom. Transfer corn kernels to blender bowl. Do same for the remaining corn. Once you have removed all of the kernels, use the knife’s dull edge to scrape the cobs top to bottom on all sides, collecting remaining pulp and “milk” (the remaining juice in the kernels) in the plate. Add to corn kernels in blender bowl.
  2. Add remaining ingredients, except for the walnuts, and blend for 1 minute or until well combined. Add walnuts and blend for an extra 10 seconds, just to distribute them.
  3. Pour in bowls and serve immediately, or you can chill until ready to serve.
  4. Leftover soup will keep for about two or three days.

 

 

9 Thoughts on “And it’s here! Day 7 of Going Raw

  1. Bravo and props to you!!

    It was interesting to learn all these things about a raw diet… the week went by fast (from my point of view, lol!).

    Now it will be interesting to hear what it feels like to go back to cooked food.

    I can’t imagine missing gluten as much as missing the temperature and flavour of things that have been baked, fried, steamed, sauteed, simmered, roasted, grilled… ::wink::

  2. Congrats! Must appreciate your will power. It is quite motivating!
    indugetscooking recently posted..Samosa Packets with Tuna FillingMy Profile

  3. Way to go Shumaila 🙂 you are an inspiration like i always say..i need to get the sugar free mindset happening
    sulagna recently posted..A Hint of Motherhood and MemoriesMy Profile

  4. Shumaila, I am becoming a faan of going raw- with all the advantages you say it’s time I think in that direction. Again hats off to your willpower. Cheers
    Priya Sreeram recently posted..Beet & Peanut RaitaMy Profile

  5. Vinita on 15 October, 2012 at 7:04 am said:

    It’s been a great week for you, Shumaila! You were determined and that’s what has helped you see it to completion. Not only the loss in weight, but you’ve shown us a side of the raw diet that is within reach and should be done, look at all the benefits – glowing skin, etc. Also, it looks yum. I don’t know if I can spring into it but I can certainly create these dishes you’ve suggested and then perhaps jump in! I believe this diet is very beneficial for the body and one should certainly try it out.

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  7. You didn’t sell this recipe too hard, so I wasn’t too sure how I’d like it – I ended up making it as a small starter to a fresh tuna curry I made for my family. We all LOVED the soup! I’ll definitely be making it again in a bigger batch!

    • So glad you liked it Johanna. I havent made the soup in ages, and yes should have sold it a little more! When I wrote the article I was excited that I managed a week of only raw food, that I somehow missed out on talking too much about the soup!

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