My "New" Diet

I am a type 1 diabetic & have been raw most of the last 4 1/2 years. I have had a lot of problems with insulin resistance (which isn't normally a type 1 issue) & other health challenges in those years (although some of the health issues existed before that, too). Not only have I had health problems, but in the last year and a half (since I was hospitalized for complications of diabetes), I have put on almost as much weight as I lost in the first three months of eating raw. Weird. Anyhow, I recently experimented with eating more cooked foods as I wasn't feeling great eating raw & thought maybe I was missing something. In August (while continuing to eat lots of cooked whole foods as they made me feel better than my raw diet had), I started using herbs, supplements and some amazing essential oils, which helped a lot in how I felt, and my insulin sensitivity has been gradually improving since then. I still hadn't lost weight, though. In fact, I was only three pounds away from my highest weight ever - which was pre-raw. I found Dave the Raw Food Trucker on Youtube, and watching him I felt like maybe I should get back to raw, but do a low-glycemic raw diet, since my body wasn't processing high-glycemic carbs well (I would eat a piece of fruit & get really irritable & crash & have to sleep for an hour). I recognized that I'd been drawn to low-glycemic cooked foods, so I wondered if maybe low-glycemic was the key I needed. I went to eating a low-glycemic raw diet, and I drank loads of fresh green vegetable juice for two or three days. I have never felt good/healthy being vegan long-term, but I felt that there was an element of truth/power for in Gabriel Cousens's eating plan, so I was planning to stick with the low-glycemic raw vegan diet for 6 months to see how I felt. Well, after six days, I felt a shift - that I didn't need to do it any more because I had reset the body-mind connection and now wanted to eat just what was best for my body, so I didn't need the rules any more. I added some grass-fed beef and a few more carbs into my diet & continued to feel better. At some point in this self-discovery process, I remembered a discussion about agave (months ago) in which I became aware that most of my crazy blood sugar issues started at the same time I started using agave. I dismissed it at the time, but it came back to me this past week. I use muscle-response testing (kinesiology) in my practice as a holistic health coach, so I decided to muscle-test myself to find out if there was/is a certain diet I need to follow, or if I can just eat intuitively, etc. I tested specifics of my ideal diet, based on the thoughts & intuition I'd had, and I discovered something amazing, which shouldn't have surprised me one bit! The diet my body wants is the exact diet I was following the first six months: when I lost weight, had more energy & experienced lots of health improvements (including better insulin sensitivity). One of the main things about this diet is NO AGAVE. I am eating plenty of carbs again, I have energy instead of crashing afterward, I get more energy every time I eat...in short, I feel better from my food than I have in the last four years since I started using agave. I have also finally started losing weight - seven pounds in the last two weeks since I got back to "my diet" - mainly raw but with no agave.

10/31/09

Okay, I know - I've been AWOL. I'm back, though I'm not likely to post every day.

This morning I decided to embark on a "low-glycemic + green vegetable juices" way of life.

Breakfast was:

Raw vegetable juice: celery, cucumber, kale, lettuce, red bell pepper

pine nuts - the fresh ones - YUM!

Thursday, 5/14/09

Little breakfast #1: Small grapefruit (maybe half the size of a regular one?)

Breakfast #2: "Warm cocoa":
young coconut meat
cacao powder
agave
maca powder
water

Snack: flax crackers topped with guacamole & sliced tomatoes - yum! - and Bubbies pickles

Lunch: 1 head cauliflower, chopped up & marinated in: olive oil, honey, ACV, salt, dill, cayenne & ginger

Dinner:
zucchini-flax "bread"
Bubbies pickles
almond cake: almond pulp, coconut, dates, agave, vanilla
kale salad: chiffonaded (sliced super into super thin ribbons) kale, avo, lemon juice, salt, black pepper - squish all together

Wednesday, 5/13/09

1 young coconut

Salad:
8 oz. spring mix
1 big avocado
1 red bell pepper
6 oz. cherry tomatoes
dressing (1 Tbsp. olive oil, juice of 1/2 a lemon, cayenne, RealSalt)

1 big avocado, sliced & sprinkled with cayenne & RealSalt (I know, I can't get enough of these!)

3 orange chocolates

3 Bubbies pickles

Tuesday, 5/12/09

Breakfast: 1 big avocado, sliced & sprinkled with cayenne & RealSalt

Lunch: pudding (blended in Vita-mix):
1 cup macadamia nuts (soaked a few hours)
1 cup coconut oil
the meat of two young coconuts
1 pound fresh strawberries
1/4 cup agave nectar

Snack: 1 young coconut (water + meat)

Dinner: Salad:
8 oz. spring mix
4 oz. cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 big avocado, cubed
dressing: 3 Tbsp. olive oil, 1/2 tsp. RealSalt, juice of 1/2 a lemon, pinch cayenne

Monday, 5/11/09

Breakfast: 2 big avocados (Costco-size, they're bigger than the "large" avocados at the regular grocery store) sliced & sprinkled with cayenne & RealSalt

Snack: Water from one young coconut

Lunch: Salad:
8 oz. spring mix
1 big avocado, cubed
diced red bell pepper (maybe 1/2 of a pepper)
dressing: 1/4 c. olive oil, juice of half a lemon, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. tarragon

Snack: flax cracker (golden flax, almond pulp, turmeric, salt, water - dehydrate)

Dinner:
the water from 4 young coconuts
the meat from 3 of the young coconuts
salad: 8 oz. spring mix, 1 big avocado (cubed), same dressing as lunch salad (1/4 c. olive oil, juice of half a lemon, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. tarragon)

Sunday, 5/10/09

Breakfast: zucchini-flax flatbread wrapped around salted avocado slices
a few of my orange chocolates to stabilize blood sugar

Lunch (around 3 pm): wraps: collard leaves filled with falafel, macadamia nut "cheese" sauce, diced red bell pepper, sprouted mung beans & chopped lettuce

No dinner - I wasn't hungry.

Catching up - 5/09/09

Okay, so I experimented with Phase 1 according to Gabriel Cousens. Had weird symptoms & switched to phase 1.5 for a few days. I then remembered something I had heard before about enzymes & not being able to always eat the same foods, and I wondered if my body is just tired of agave & cashews, and if maybe it doesn't have much to do with the sugars in the fruit/agave. So I licked my fingers after cleaning off the edge of thehoney jar, and I didn't have any bad reaction. The next day, I ate my yummy marinated cauliflower salad (the marinade had 1/2 cup honey in it), and no heavy feeling like I was getting with high-carb stuff before. I had lots of energy. So I'm back to "listening to my body". I'm still feeling heavy after eating agave, but I've used it a little in order to get lots of other nutritious goodies into me more easily.

Saturday, May 9

Breakfast: Don't remember, sorry.

2 quarts of green veggie juice: lettuce, celery, cauliflower stems and cucumbers

Lunch: flax crackers

Dinner: zucchini noodles with macadamia nut "cheese" sauce, falafel & diced tomatoes
orange chocolates: cacao powder, coconut spread/butter (this is ground-up coconut meat & not just the oil), orange flavor oil, and agave

At a wedding celebration: strawberries (I asked the server if they had any that weren't dipped in chocolate yet & she was happy to oblige!) and more of my orange chocolates

Bedtime snack: the meat of a young Thai coconut

5/04/09

I have been doing though a lot of experimenting the last several days. I had strange symptoms my third day on phase 1 - they went away when I ate grapefruit on day 4, so I decided to move to phase 1.5 and add some low-glycemic fruit, sprouted grains, etc. to my diet.

Breakfast: falafel balls

Lunch: salad (5 oz. spring mix, 1 large avocado, dill-flavored seed cheese and dressing made of avocado, water, lemon juice, salt & pepper)
1 c. blueberries (thawed) in a bowl with 1 cup almond milk

Snack: another bowl of blueberries & almond milk

Snack: 1 large avocado, sliced & sprinkled with sea salt & cayenne (I used up the Mexican seasoning)

Dinner: salad (5 oz. spring mix, 12 cherry tomatoes, 1/4 of a red bell pepper, 1 large avocado, alfalfa sprouts, olive oil, lemon juice, salt black pepper) YUM!!!

4/30/09

Here's what I remember from today:

falafel balls + 1 cup sesame milk (unsweetened)

1 large avocado, sliced & topped with Mexican seasoning & sea salt

1 cup sesame milk

salad: 8 oz. Spring mix, 1 large avocado, dressing made of lemon/olive oil/tarragon/salt/water

1 cup sprouted mung beans

salad #2: 3 oz. Spring mix, 1 large avocado, dried dill, raw olives, sprouted lentils, same dressing as before

2 Tbsp. cacao nibs

a little sunflower seed cheese

breaded zucchini sticks: the coating was ground flax, ground sesame seeds, salt & cayenne.

Changing!

I have had a lot of other priorities the last week & haven't written down what I ate.

I have embarked on phase 1 of Gabriel Cousens's plan - from his book "Rainbow Green Live Food Cuisine". I am taking it a day at a time, as I tried it last year & only lasted a few weeks. I felt great most of the time when I did this before, and for the past few months, I haven't felt in the best health, and I have felt that it is because I've been eating things that aren't the best for my body right now: fruit, cashews, nutritional yeast, sweeteners, carrot juice...all the things that aren't allowed on phase 1 of Dr. C's plan, although it took me a while to realize the connection. So it made sense to try his plan again, but I was a little apprehensive because I didn't last very long on it before & felt really deprived - not fun! Reading the book again, I finally realized what happened last time. I wasn't getting enough to eat! This is because I was trying to follow his recommendations for percentages of carbs, protein & fat. I realized that he must be figuring the percentages by bulk (rather than by calories, like I'm used to seeing it done). This time, I am not looking at percentages at all. I have eaten intuitively long enough that I trust my instincts to let me know if I'm eating too much of one thing, not enough of another, etc. I am also not worried about any of the things I "can't" eat - I haven't been feeling great eating them anyway! Today is my third day eating phase 1 foods.

The past 2 1/2 days, I have been eating things like:

falafel balls (my adaptation of this recipe)
zucchini "pasta" with raw marinara sauce
sesame milk (unsweetened)
avocados with Mexican seasoning & salt
salads with dressing made of olive oil, lemon juice, tarragon, salt & water
sprouted mung beans

4/21/09

1 mango

3 sliced avocados sprinkled with Mexican seasoning and RealSalt - or two of these plates:



6 dried bananas

chunk of raw chocolate (cacao powder, cacao butter, agave, maca) - about 1/4 cup

veggie juice: 2+ lbs. carrots, 1 head red leaf lettuce, 1 1/2 c. cauliflower stems

More chocolate - about 2/3 cup? This time I added coconut oil and left out the maca.

1/2 c. Morroccan olives

4/20/09

1/3 of a banana

1 mango

1 mango

2/3 c. Dipping Chocolate - my recipe here

zucchini pasta with this alfredo sauce - I just had the zucchini and the sauce, and a few raw Morroccan olives on the side.

1 pineapple

handful Hunza raisins

4/19/09

Breakfast: Sprouted quinoa, avocado, fresh chives, sprouted mung beans & sweet lemon dressing

Lunch: I added sprouted lentils to my leftovers from breakfast.



Snack: 2/3 of a "Banana split shake": 1 c. cashews, 1 lb. strawberries, 3 frozen bananas, 1/4 c. cacao powder, 3/4 c. agave, cold water enough to help it blend - put the strawberries & agave in the blender first, then put everything else in on top & blend until creamy. It made about 6-7 cups. I put the leftovers in the freezer to see how it works as ice cream later on, or I may thaw it partially & stir it up to have as a shake.

I went to a friend's house in the evening, and I discovered malva growing near the front steps! I had only this winter discovered that the leaves & stems are edible (I had eaten the "cheesies" - seeds - for years), and I hadn't tried any yet - fun!

There was fresh mint gowing nearby, too, so we ate a little of that. We picked & washed a bowl of malva (it hadn't been sprayed with pesticides), and I snacked on it plain, along with a few baby carrots. Good stuff! It reminded me a tiny bit of raw okra, because the stems had a little of the okra-type sliminess. I loved it!

I had a banana later on to stabilize my blood sugar. It has been wonky lately, so I'm carrying bananas with me constantly.

4/18/09

Breakfast #1: 1/4 of a pineapple

Breakfast #2: 1 c. chocolate fudge ice cream

Snack/lunch: a few slices of banana, and 3/4 of a pineapple - I had it in the dehydrator for a couple of hours, so it was warm, dry on the outside with an explosion of juiciness in every bite...my dad likes to grill fresh pineapple slices on his BBQ grill - this is my raw version. :)

1 banana to raise blood sugar

Veggie juice: 2+ lbs. carrots, 1 head of romaine and the core of a tiny head of cauliflower - I didn't mean for this to be my dinner, but it filled me up so I never got hungry later on.

4/17/09

Breakfast #1: 1/8 of a Perfect Cheesecake, with chocolate on top

Breakfast #2: 1 c. chocolate fudge ice cream (cashews, coconut oil, cacao butter, cacao powder, agave, maple syrup...)

snack: juice of: 1 cucumber, 1 small jicama, 1/2 bunch cilantro

Lunch: 4 (small) raw tamales

Snack: 1 cup sesame milk

Dinner: 12 more raw tamales

4/16/09 - Getting Back to Raw

Breakfast: 1/4 of a Perfect Cheesecake

I ate a handful-size (or more) of something cooked three days in a row this week, plus once or twice last week. For me, that is A LOT of cooked food!

About 10 am today, I finally realized that I had emotional/self-protection issues that have been keeping me from eating & living the way I feel best. So, I'm done.

I went to the kitchen and ate the first raw, nutrient-dense thing I could find. It was a small handful of cacao nibs.

Lunch: 1/3 of a head of cauliflower with sweet lemon marinade

Afternoon indulgence: I intended to make a chocolate-topped version of my perfect cheesecake (we finished the other one this morning for breakfast), but I was impatient. The chocolate sets up quickly, but the cheesecake doesn't, so I ended up having cheesecake soup with chunks of coconut-flavored chocolate swimming in it. I don't recommend this combination of flavors. :P

Another afternoon indulgence: veggie juice - 1 head green leaf lettuce, 5 carrots and the stems & core of 1 head of cauliflower

Dinner: 1/8 of a chocolate-topped cheesecake - since it still hadn't set up completely, I was able to eat it more easily by turning it upside-down.

Bedtime: 1 c. sesame milk

4/15/09

I went out to do errands for a few hours, and I took fruit with me to eat in the car. Unfortunately, I neglected to refill my insulin pump before I left the house, so I couldn't eat carbohydrates while we were out. :(

I had a couple of sips of my son's Jamba Juice smoothie once we were headed home & I knew I'd be getting insulin soon.

Lunch: 4 chicken wings (leftovers from yesterday). I didn't really want any more meat, but no one else was going to eat them. I was wishing I hadn't cooked so many.

Snack: 11 of the homemade french fries I cooked for my son: potatoes chopped up and cooked in coconut oil.

1 strawberry (because I got sick of eating so much cooked food and wanted something raw, but the cheesecake wasn't ready yet)



Dinner: 1/3 of a Perfect Cheesecake

Bedtime snack: 1/3 of a head of cauliflower with a sweet lemon marinade

4/14/09

11 am - Salad: 8 oz. spring mix, 1 avocado, lemon-herb olive oil dressing

1 pm - 3 all-natural chicken wings baked with cayenne & sea salt, then dipped in agave (a healthier version of Buffalo wings)

3 pm - 3 more chicken wings

5 pm - 1 banana

7 pm - 1 c. sesame milk

8 pm - 1 mango

4/13/09

Breakfast: 1 c. sesame milk

lunch: 1 molasses muffin - made of: flour (we grind it from wheat, brown rice, corn, rye, millet, oats & barley), molasses, oil, baking powder, sea salt, water, honey & bananas

banana-"Oreo" shake - I wish I had measured ingredients, because it was so good! It was made of:
soaked Brazil nuts
frozen bananas
water
cacao nibs

It really reminded me of the "cookies & cream" ice cream stuff made with Oreos. Of course I haven't eaten an Oreo for a few years...my son liked it, too, though, so it must not have been too "weird"! :D

Dinner: Sprouted quinoa + vegetables + dressing (I know, I can't seem to get tired of it!) + FRESH CHIVES FROM THE GARDEN! This is my first "back yard food" of the year, so I was pretty excited. Good stuff!

4/12/09 - Happy Easter!

I wasn't hungry in the morning.

1 pm: Sprouted quinoa + vegetables + dressing + mung bean sprouts

3 pm: 3 dates (to raise blood sugar) + 5 dried bananas (because I wanted them)

6 pm: family dinner - it was a salad bar this time - I was thrilled! Huge salad :)

8 pm: 5 dried bananas (I'm out now - gotta put bananas on the shopping list!)

4/11/09

I lost the list I wrote from Friday, April 10th.

On Saturday April 11th, I ate the following:

Breakfast - juice of 4 small grapefruits

Lunch - 2 bowls of sprouted quinoa & vegetables with dressing

1 apple to raise blood sugar

Dinner: 4 pieces of raw carrot-onion bread

Snack: 5 dried bananas

dried mulberries to raise blood sugar

Bedtime: 1 c. sesame milk

4/09/09

Breakfast was Melody's quinoa salad left over from dinner last night. Yummy!

Later, I had 3 cups of sesame milk, but it didn't satisfy me for long. After that, I couldn't figure out what I wanted. I looked through my kitchen and nothing sounded good. I had several prepared things in the freezer, so I started looking through those, thinking maybe I'd have some carrot cake. It didn't sound that good, either, but I was hungry. Then I saw a piece of (grass-fed) beef and I wanted nothing else in the world. I cooked it up (1/4 pound) & topped it with lime juice & RealSalt, since I have found that I seem to digest beef better if I eat it with either lime or avocado. That was my "lunch" (at 2 pm).

I also put the carrot cake in the dehydrator to warm up, and I ate it an hour or two later. When I freeze the cake, I like to leave the cake unfrosted and freeze the icing in a separate freezer bag, so I can warm them both in the dehydrator without having melted icing dripping everywhere. I ice the cake when both are warmed. Good stuff!

I later made a strawberry ice cream to put in the freezer overnight, and I cleaned out the blender by putting a cup of almond milk in & blending. It gave the almond milk a little strawberry flavor and I felt good not wasting the ice cream batter.



At bedtime, I ate some soaked Brazil nuts (maybe a dozen or so).

4/08/09

After eating two dinners, I wasn't hungry until noon. I was due for a shopping trip for fresh produce, so I had a plate of nacho dip with flax cracker "chips" in the meantime.



Dinner was a quinoa salad recipe by Melody - it consisted of sprouted quinoa, sprouted beans, chopped veggies, fresh herbs and a garlicky, lemony dressing. It was fantastic! It was my first experience using tarragon (one of the dressing ingredients). I'm a fan. :)

4/07/09 & GREEN Salad!

My breakfast today was 3 cups of sesame milk (made from 1 cup of sesame seeds). It's bitter, although it doesn't seem as bitter when I don't soak it as long - I drink it for the calcium.

Midmorning snack - 2 Gala apples

Okay, yes, I eat salad! Here is the one I had for lunch today - all green!



The salad consisted of:

Organic Baby Herb Salad
sunflower greens
avocado
sprouted mung beans
Sweet Basil Dressing - my recipe here



Dinner was Raw Peach Cobbler.



I ate the whole thing (about half the size of a 9x13 baking dish) before leaving for the evening.


At a friend's baby shower later, I ate a second dinner: They served tacos, but I opted to avoid the taco shells & tortilla chips. Instead, I had some cooked black beans & ground turkey (both seasoned with an all-natural taco seasoning), loaded up with fresh guacamole, a little raw cheese and some fresh salsa, with fresh green peas and grape tomatoes on the side.

After the baby shower, I ate 2 dates and some dried bananas (from 1 1/2 fresh bananas) to raise a low blood sugar level.