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.