Day 28

Today...pretty much the same. Am home again and had muesli for breakfast, rice with cooked veg and chicken for lunch (that's it now) and will have a big salad for dinner. No wine left so can't be tempted there.
Still looking into appliances to allow me to be so much more creative with the raw cooking.

Day 27

So again, that was yesterday.
Muesli with oat milk and chia for breakfast.
Brown rice with the veg and bit of chicken for lunch
And was over at my BF for dinner and had chicken curry with white rice and made myself a GREEN salad too. And 1 glass of white wine.
Not brilliant but ey.. Soon better.

Day 26

No wine yesterday. I was good. Had green tea instead.
This morning had a late BF of muesli with oat milk.
Forgot to eat my banana.
Had lunch of courgette spaghetti with pesto and rest of brown rice.
Banana for desert.
And tonight I just CANNOT face a cold salad with no carbs or protein.. nothing "consistent".. so I've just crumbled. It will be boiled veg in coconut milk, brown rice and CHICKEN with curry. And I'm HUNGRY.
Eating raw without blender, food processor, coffee grinder and dehydrator is NOT easy... I will have to see how I'm gonna avoid going all the way back, as that's NOT what I want. Might get myself a dehydrator for 65€ and a blender for another 65, but to be honest, don't have the money right now!.. So we'll see.
I'm gonna enjoy my sins tonight though, hehe!! WITH some red wine!! While I'm at it, I might as well!

Day 25

Spent almost the WHOLE day yesterday looking into blenders, food processors etc.. I feel s stuck without them! And the dehydrator...and coffee grinder... It's a lot, but to have some fun in the kitchen and get away from the salads, I feel I'm gonna really need them...
Anyway, I don't have them so I'm slipping a bit..
This morning had muesli with chia seeds and oat milk with 1 banana.
Then later 1 banana.
Lunch big salad.
Dinner big salad with wild greens and some toasted brown rice with onion and garlic.
No wine :)
But tonight I'm out, at my BF's so.. not sure what will happen.
We made peace so from now on things will change probably...Luckily he knows my passion for "green" salads, so it shouldn't be too hard.

Day 24

My spaghetti yesterday were awful, far too acidic.
I feel so stuck without a blender.. no inspiration for cooking. My "bread" is kinda rotting away upstairs as it's not very sunny. What a waste of food!!
So I'm desperately looking for some cheap appliances, as it's making me look for other food!
Anyway, it's 11 now and i'm just having my "breakfast", muesli with loads of things in it, chia seeds etc. That should keep me going..

Late lunch was mixed salad with lots of wilds and a bit of brown rice toasted with onions.
Dinner was some very ripe "sapo" melon, delicious!! And yes, I had another glass of wine.. :(

Day 23

That's today..
It seems I'm on the mend.
I didn't cough at all last night, but started again this morning, though much less..
Just made myself a late breakfast of 1 mango, 2 bananas and 1 kiwi. that'll be a brunch then, as I don't think I'll be hungry again after that, at least for a while. I might make some spaghetti alla putanesca for tonight. If I fancy the idea later on.

What a strange food diary this makes, hehe. But I feel GREAT, better than in a long long time (apart from the "cold"!)

16.00... and i've plunged. That little devil in me has pulled his strings and I fell... after more than 1 month..
I started cooking my spaghetti alla putanesca, as well as I can with half the ingredients, then went for some oil, saw the prawn crackers (I know... I should have thrown them!) and even worse... the bottle of "gweek" wine! (one of my pupils struggled with that "greek wine" for quite a while, so it's kinda funny to think I'm drinking Greek Wine, hehe).
Anyway.. here I am, 1 bag of prawn crackers and 1/2 bottle of Greek wine later.
BAD GIRL!
But it's nice....
Tonight spaghetti (YES! raw...)

Day 22

That's yesterday..
No-voice day. Absolutely couldn't speak.
Drank a lot and bought some cough sirup, because my groins are aching from all the coughing!
Anyway, because I felt so rubbish, I wasn't hungry at all during the day, but in the evening I really started to feel it, and started craving some carbs. So firstly I ate some flax crackers (that were really NOT nice, I need to work on that recipe!) with some hummus I still had. And then I decide this was such an occasion, and cooked some brown rice, which I had with gomasio and a salad.
I HAVE to look into these apparatus, coffee grinder, blender, smoothiemaker, food processor..as without a blender I'm very stuck! But money is so tight right now...

Day 21

Still feeling bad, worse than yesterday. Insisted on doing my lessons, as I badly NEED the money, but shouldn't have. This afternoon even my voice went.
So shitty day altogether.
Haven't eaten today, as I wanted to give my body a rest.
Had lemon water and honey this morning, water throughout the day, and 1 lovely ripe mango and more lemon with honey and tea tree oil tonight.
Still no blender nor smoothie maker .. so am a bit stuck, cooking-wise..
Will see how I feel tomorrow, otherwise I'll stick to fruit...

Illness, go away!

Day 20

and still going strong.
Today I'm going to try the bread, as my attempt tastes quite horrible, normal bread dried in the sun... I thought it would be different! :S

I'm having quite a bad "cold" at the moment, which totally surprised me, as I don't usually get them. It feels like sinusitis and throat infection. I imagine it must be a cleansing process... my body having a spring clean..
Not a nice feeling though. runny nose and THICK head and sickness on top... Only hope it doesn't last too long.

Anyway, for breakfast I made myself a lovely smoothie: 1 banana, 1/2 mango, 5 grapes and some wild greens. And will have the rest as a snack later.

Shit!! Broke the blender this morning, trying to make the bread. And also found out that I didn't have any flax meal!! Sht!

Lunch: again a big salad with seeds etc
Dinner, am feeling like shit, so just had 2 chirimoyas. and am off to bed soon. I really hope this is a cleanup due to the new diet..and that it will go soon...

Day 19

Morning: green smoothie: mango with greens. Had it in 2 times.
Lunch: big mixed salad with mango etc and sprinkled seeds and goji over it.
Dinner: big salad with same.. and 1 pudding (apple cream I made with Laura) Yummy!!!

no time for more

Day19

This morning I had porridge with 1 banana.
Training at 14h was hard and I felt quite faint. I'm quite sure though that I would have felt the same if not worse wit normal food.
For lunch I made myself a salad with:
onion, rest of coleslaw, red and green peppers, iceberg salad, lollo rosso and green, avocado, rocket sprouts, wild greens (5 different ones: wild clover, wild dandelion, wild rocket, purple flower, malve), cherry tomatoes, ginger, mushrooms and mix of ground seeds with goji berries.
LOVELY! Love the cumin in the background and all the different tastes that explode, as I kept the dressing down (olive oil, salt and bit of apple vinegar).
If that's not complete I don't know.
I have a problem, as my PT has asked me for a list of the food I'm eating all week.. I guess I'll have to cheat and put lots of "protein" on my list, because I REALLY don't fancy talking about it, and less to people who don't have a clue about nutrition beyond the old fashioned bit they've learned in school.
Their patronizing irritates me. I guess I'm just not "confident" enough on the outside to tell them politely to FO. Thing is I always ask myself, why do they think they have any rights to tell ME what to do??
Anyway...
I'm happy cos I found James' bread recipe. Can't wait for these clouds to go to try it out. I guess that'll be Wednesday.. hopefully.

For dinner I had some salad and a bit of the tart Laura and I made.

Day 18

this morning we had porridge with banana and almond milk. Laura loved it.
Then we made an apple cream tart and for lunch we had a green smoothie of mango, kiwi and grapes with wild greens, and Laura had an extra apple.
I also made an apple cream for desert for later today.
Yummy!!!
Tonight we had coleslaw with grated carrots, with hummus and cherry tomatoes. Laura had an egg as well...
For desert: apple tart!

Day 17

Saturday.
Laura with me and I'm going to try to give her only yummy raw foods. See how it goes.
Breakfast: banana smoothie and later a green smoothie which I passed through a siff to take out the bits of greens. She loved both.

We made some banana cookies and 2 breads. 1 sourdough and one with a leftover of some bread preparation (probably contains a bit of yeast).

They should be rising now, will make them into patties later to sundry them.

Lunch: courgette and pumpkin, pepper and basil salad with marinara sauce.
A shame for the onion... Laura DID taste it's sharpness so didn't want it. I'll have to vary on that.
Desert: chokolate pudding (avocado, banana, carob, easy peasy!!!)
Who says raw is difficult???

For dinner I repeated the courgette and made a new marinara sauce for laura. Must say am getting fed up with courgette so will definitely have to look into some variation.

Day 16

Late again.
Breakfast was a disaster as my yummy porridge had gone sour.... why?? No idea, so I made myself a quick smoothie with mango, grapes and green. Delicious.

Lunch some spaghetti, didn't like it, but must say no sauce.. too much in a hurry. I MUST look into some satisfying recipes.

Evening, as I had Laura here (for the whole weekend)she had some raw veggies and a fried egg, and I had a big salad. Then made a banana smoothie, which she loves.

Tomorrow we have a cooking day!! I really feel like inventing!

Day 15

Hm.. am so full of ideas for my website, all I'm doing is looking material up and writing things down... So I completely forgot to open the blog.. :S
Anyway, am still having the lovely porridge in the morning, with almond milk.
Made the pumpkin and courgette spaghetti but didn't like it very much, just like that. I's quite bland. I made a basil mayo which was quite nice...

Anyway, yesterday I had: porridge, late afternoon big salad with wild greens and avocado and later 1 nectarine.
This morning, porridge.

Don't let me forget to come back!!

Day 11

Start the day with my beloved porridge. Wow how I love it! I think I could pretty much live on it! And the almond milk!. Yummy yummy.
Also made a green mango smoothie to take with me.
For lunch I should have my veggies and meatballs. I definitely have to start experimenting to make NICE meatballs... And I had this idea for a raw ensaladilla rusa...Don't let me forget!

Day 10

Just assembled the porridge, made almond milk etc. LOVE IT, Love it, love it! It makes me feel vibrant and alive and human to the fullest!
James Russell's porridge is the yummiest thing I've ever had.
I changed it slightly: added the almonds (from the milk) into the porridge and blended the porridge with only a bit of water, and then added the milk on top afterwards.
Then I added only 1/2 banana.
But of course, this recipe allows for soooo many variations!
James really is a genius!

What a way to start the day! Raw, fresh and healthy! ALIVE!

Went to the gym today to do a bit of training but mu shoulders hurt quite badly as soon as I move my arms outwards.. Anyway, better than nothing.
For lunch I decided to try Karen Knowler's "meatballs" but in the smoothie maker that doesn't really work very well.. or maybe i's me.. It ended up far too blended but even that took me a while, as it just didn't blen well..
I added some garlic to the recipe and ended up having to thicken it with outflakes. Even so, I just had a few spoonfulls of it (will make them and leave them to dry out a bit for tonight) and am now having a fruit salad (1/2 banana, 1 nectarine both organic! and 1 slice of pineapple) and a glass of apple juice.

Yesterday I received Karen Knowler's 24 raw e-book and thought I'd do the veggie recipe for dinner. Sadly I read too late that it has to stand for several hours, so I made it for tomorrow and tonight I had a mixed green salad with mache, wild rocket, mixed greens (from shop) a bit of malva, some wild dandelion, avocado, olive oil and apple vinegar.
Am drying some flax crackers that are looking fine and will try to dry the meatballs too, as fresh they don't appeal that much to me... we'll see.

Day 9

Busy busy today, mostly on the internet looking for more material for my website, sending emails, getting things sorted.
I also went out to pick some fresh wild vegetables and came home with a bag packed full of goodies!!
Again melde, some wild roquet, some wild spinach, some clover, some fennel etc and loads of tiny cherry tomatoes. Love'em!

Had a green smoothie this morning, leftover from yesterday diluted with some apple juice.
For lunch I had some zucchini spaghetti with a bit of salmon and tomatoes.
Afternoon had some fresh pineapple.
And just made myself a huge mixed salad with some mache, mixed greens, spinach, wild roquet, wild dandelion, avocado, tomato, flaxseeds, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds. +olive oil and apple vinegar. Yummy!

For tomorrow I've prepared Russell's breakfast porridge and will also try to make the crackers. See how it goes!
Good day.

Day 8

Cleaning day today.
Was awake VERY early and at 6 I just thought, what the heck.. and started cleaning!

I'm really getting in the mood for experimenting with raw cooking and getting lost of inspiration for my new website.
My morning smoothie (it's 11 already!!) is made of:
1/2 avocado
1/2 lemon juice
handful of wild greens
4 small organic tomatoes
basil, parsley
some organic olive oil
bit of fresh ginger
bit of iceberg salad (why?)
salt and pepper
water
really nice.

I'm making a shopping list and plan to do shopping for some organic veg now. See what I can find.
Will go replenish my wild food later in the day.
Ah, and I downloaded James Russell's recipes. Expensive, but I hope it'll give me that much needed inspiration and tips on all the ingredients I need, to make bread and cheese etc... Can't wait!

LOVE THIS!

For lunch I had a mixed salad and some smoked salmon. Didn't like the salmon much, although I used to love it till now... Ate t anyway.. (stupid)

Fr dinner I made a Thai salad: carrots, cabbage, onion and green peppers, all thinly sliced, massaged with a bit of salt. Dressing was olive oil, fresh ginger, lemon juice, curry, cumin, salt and a bit of the morning smoothie. A shame I didn't have any cilantro. would have been perfect.

Day 7

This morning I had Laura with me, so I made a "green smoothie" with banana, mango and greens. Didn't go down too well, as she saw me put the greens in and was instantly distrustful... S:
Lunch I had a salad in a restaurant.. with some fresh cheese and a bit of baby corn.. and some white bread...
It's "ok" as I'm in the transition phase anyway...
NEED to get organized.
My stomach still sounds as if it was an explosive chemical mixture in there... Feeling very good otherwise, although this afternoon I had my usual "horribly sleepy" moment.
My shoulders still aching. Joints in my hands and wrist seem a bit better.
I have a long weekend ahead of me and I feel like experimenting a bit with raw food. Using grains and making some protein-like stuff. I feel I crave that a little bit.

And I need to find some "edible" things for when Laura comes next weekend... see if I can impress her...
My evening meal was:
some "old" broccoli which I steamed ever so slightly at low heat, mixed with fresh garlic, ginger and cream (still getting rid of things.. I know it's silly but...) and a normal mixed salad.

Day 6

This morning, my breakfast is a green smoothie: 1/2 banana, 1 mango, some wild greens, juice of 1/2 lemon and water. Delicious! I wish I had some mint to add, as it's really asking for it!!
Had the other half banana, rest of smoothie and 1 apple around 12.
Lunch was a green salad, piece of feta and a few rice cakes with pesto.
Evening meal was courgette spaghetti, heated sauce (might have overheated it... S:) and hat 1 vegetable burger, because Laura was here, so I had to make some cooked food.
The great thing was, she tasted my "spaghetti" and loved them and then for desert I gave her the chocolate pudding from yesterday and she LOVED that too. Good sign I would say. She said she wanted to help me make all these foods, so that's what we will do next weekend.
Can't wait!!

Day 5

Yesterday I overate. I'm sure...
Had my morning smoothie twice. Then I had a salad at midday with a glass of gazpacho and a small piece of feta. In the evening I had .. can't remember!!
Hm.. I will have to write it down better!
Anyway, after dinner (if I had some...) I had a nectarine, a banana and then later I made a chocolate pudding with avocado, banana and carob powder, yummy! I had half a glass of that and felt very guilty.

Day 4

Yesterday I had spaghetti for dinner, made with courgette and a very nice raw tomato sauce. Really good!!
But I must say, apart from feeling very good and more charged with energy than before, at night my stomach sounds like a cauldron...
I hope that will go away.
Tomorrow I will go and see the organic veg people, see what happens there.
This morning I had a smoothie with banana, avocado, grapes, wild greens, organic apple juice, chia seeds and goji/flax mix.
I like it. Am not craving anything.

Can't wait to get started on some of the recipes...

Wild plants

I just wanted to mention the plants I've collected and am eating so far:
Don't know the names in English but as a reminder it will serve.
Melde
Malve
camarrojas
lisones
purple flower? (I'll amend this later)
and found some wild grown tomatoes, delicious!!

Day 3

Yesterday was strange.
It's still very disorganized. Still haven't got any organic food but am getting nearer.
Had some leftover smoothie later in the morning.
And for a late lunch I made myself a big salad with avocado and feta cheese (getting rid of some things in my fridge).
What was strange, is that I vomited it all STRAIGHT AWAY. That's never happened to me before. It hadn't even reached my stomach. And I felt perfectly fine afterwards... Really weird.

Later on I did get a craving, though, and made myself an omelette with bacon!!! (Again, getting rid of stuff). I left half of it and threw it away... not my food anymore, definitely!

In the evening I had a cup of tea. felt great.
I feel I look good, still slightly overweight for my taste, but ok. The only thing is I am very windy and feel very bloated still.
But I have noticed that the articulations in my hands ache less in the mornings. But that could also be related to the yoga, which I'm doing every morning again.
I feel I'm getting there and am very happy.
I've also found Esme's website which is a TREASURE of information. I absolutely LOVE it!
This morning I had a smoothie with 1/2 banana, 1/2 avocado, few grapes, wild greens, rice milk and organic apple juice. Took the other half banana and rest of smoothie to work.
And for lunch I had gazpacho: organic tomatoes, bit of onion, bit of garlic (poor pupils!), 1/2 cucumber, wild greens, some peeled almonds, bit of apple vinegar, olive oil, himalaya salt and water.
Was quite nice, but I definitely have to start perfecting my recipes... or try out Esme's and Victoria's.
Sooo much to discover and I can't wait!!!
Love it, love it, love it!

Day 1. "The distance is nothing. It's only the first step that counts."

Ok. The first step is taken. I have been thinking about eating healthier for quite a while now. It was a craving, a hankering inside me. I disliked the food I was eating at my partner's home, too much meat, too little vegetables.. just not my style at all. I need this sense of health and freshness. Not only in my food, but around me.
And one good day I stumbled upon a video by Therese de Wolf. (Rawdownunder). I really instantly loved her videos and her journey.
Then I looked much deeper into raw food, read many many pages on the internet, and it was like it clicked instantly.
I am totally unprepared at this stage, but today it's Sunday and so I went out, found some wild greens and made my first green smoothie.
Not too bad (though not delicious either..) for a first smoothie.
Luckily I just had a blood test done, so I have something to compare with in some time from now.
I wish I could stop all treatments right now, and as soon as I start in earnest (e.a. have all the right foods that I need) I will stop the thyroid treatment. Sadly can't stop the hormones, as they're inside me, but in 2 years time, I will hopefully be in full swing with the raw diet and will not carry on with it. See what happens.

On a more personal note, it seems I have just become single again. And it feels quite final this time.
So this is the right time to change things in my life. I have the strength and determination. I FEEL it's good, it pulls me.
I have also signed up for a 10 day meditation retreat.
So I'm on my way to a better me. I hope to see myself as a calm, balanced, healthy, vibrant person in not too long from now.
I am starting to feel my health slowly decline and I don't want it. I'm ONLY 45 and that's far too young to have bad eyes and arthritis menacing around the corner.
So I will assess myself and see how all these symptoms behave.
I hope to be able to say that they've gone very soon.

Ok, so today my first smoothie contained:
1 banana
some wild greens
some wild cherry tomatoes I found
organic rice milk
chia seeds
apple juice
ground goji berries.

Am making lists at the moment and will empty my cupboards soon.

So. Let's see what happens.