Week 1

     Week 1 is over and I have lost 7 lbs and Shelley has lost 6.  Not bad but I am hoping that is not where it will end.  I did have some mild-moderate headaches around day 4 - day 8 but things are better now. Shelley did not have any issues with headaches.  She did consume about the same amount of caffeine as me prior to the diet but did not smoke.  Now the issue is variety in our diets.  Whole foods sells a couple different lines of raw snacks and they are helpful (not cheap) and very good.  We are starting to peruse around the web looking for new recipe ideas that do not require purchasing much more equipment or strange ingredients.
      I was able to get 4 runs in last week for a total of 12 mi.  Slowly seeing signs of progress.   Do not think I ate enough before Saturdays 4 mi run.  Even though it isn't really a long distance I felt very sluggish last mile and was starving afterwards so I will have to watch that this week.  I purchased a sprouter from Amazon today and it should be here mid week.  This will help me to make lots of tasty types of sprouts to munch on.  I had ordered a sprouter and some sprouts a few weeks ago however the company I ordered the sprouter from never responded or sent my item.  I purchased the seeds from the Handy Pantry Sprouting.  Will update later with info on both items.

What is considered raw food?

Almost forgot the basic premise is any food that is not processed above 118 degrees.  The version we are doing is vegan as well so no animal products.  So no coffee, tea, alcohol, bread, preserves, pickles, you get the point.  Some dried fruit is ok but most commercially produced products are heated too high.  This site is a good reference when trying to determine what you can and cannot have when you start off. 

Shopping Day -1

So we are gonna need lots of fresh fruit and veggies.  Since I want to make sure I eat as local as possible, I did some shopping for a co-op near by.  Luckily there is one, and am pretty sure its the only one.  Homegrown, central Florida's local food co-op.  The way this one works is this:  Non-Members get to order twice before paying for a membership, Sunday after 5pm you can go online and see what they have to order, place your order and pick it up on Thursday at their downtown location.  I have to tell you the produce there is amazing and if you live in the area I highly recommend it.  Most of it was either cheaper or just about as much as other local grocers and the quality was much higher.  Not to mention all of the food is either organic or the farm practices organic practice but isn't certified.  You won't be able to get all your fruit/veggies for the week there but it is a great start!

Why raw?

I have not been happy with the way I have been eating lately and I knew a while back I wanted to change it however being unemployed did not leave me much room for spending money on groceries.  For the most part the better it is for your the more it costs.  In the past I feel I ate better than about 80% of the population but I knew I could do better (so could my waistline).  One night I watched Food, Inc. and somehow from there and looking around at similar topics I came upon Raw for Life.  I watched some clips and it seemed really interesting.  Next month when I was able, I purchased the Raw for Life Encyclopedia.  While I was not impressed with the DVDs content (more later), it did make many good points and it seemed like it would work for me.  My main goals were to eat more local food, reduce the amount of meat I eat, and finally to loose weight.  I don't think this is going to be an easy 30 days but I think it will be well worth it.