Day 16,363: Back to Basics

This is Phoebe. This is how she looks to us most days. Brazen. On her back. On the sofa. Basking in the sunlight through the skylights. Joy in a fur coat, that one. She teaches me all I need to know.

While Phoebe and the rest of my family lounge around indoors due to the unrelenting heat outside, I have been slicing, dicing, chopping, and grating in preparation for the week ahead. I am on Day 3 of Project Jakk's Back to Raw. Before the holidays last year, I fell off of the raw wagon. I wasn't all raw at the time -- probably 80%. At the start of this year, when I had hoped to get back on track, I let stress and its twin, snacking, get the upperhand. Well, it's time for me to take responsibility. No more excuses ... about this or anything in my life that isn't working.

I feel my best when I eat mostly raw/living foods. When I eat S.A.D. on a long-term basis, I am rewarded with a host of health problems. The kind that can have scary ramifications if ignored. The kind that make it easy to make the changes that need to be made.

I have a goal of 30 days all raw. No small feat, at least from this vantage point. The cravings can be a real butt kicker. The first day I was hopped up on enthusiasm, so it was easy to say no. Yesterday, the second day, I was blown over by sadness and frustration that I couldn't eat what my family had for dinner. As much as I would love for them to join me on this journey, they aren't interested and I respect their decision. But it's much more of a challenge for me knowing that I have to go it alone.

Day 3 has delivered encouragement. My headache has gone away and the aches are fading as well. The cooked food buzz/static is already gone. It won't be much longer before I start to see the slightest hint of my impending glow and feel my energy increase exponentially. Once the magic starts to happen, it really is easy to stay the course.

The hardest part for me is the social aspect. Dates with my husband and friends almost always involve dining out. Not that I can't step foot in a restaurant anymore. Most serve salads ... good ones, at that. But success for me means planning ahead and not showing up starving. Bad things happen when I let myself get too hungry.

I've clung to Jennifer Cornbleet's "Raw Food Made Easy for 1 or 2 People" for years. Basic recipes but so delicious. It's going to be my primary resource over the next month. The foundation of my plan is a 36 ounce batch of green smoothies each day. They keep me stable and satisfied. But Jennifer's recipes will give me something to look forward to at snack and dinner times.

I'll try not to bore you with all of the gruesome details in the days and weeks ahead. I have no plans to turn this into a raw blog. But this is part of my journey right now, so I'll check in at random for an update, in case you're curious. And if you should catch me out and about with a beer in one hand and a BBQ sandwich in the other, please forgive me.