Concentration and alertness

I feel like my concentration is not good at the moment. Maybe I am being too hard on myself as there is so much to try and take in/remember/do on teaching placement. But I do feel I am not as on the ball as I once was and I don't like it! Started on the B12 supplements a few weeks ago but don't always remember to take them. Need to increase water intake as well. Oh, and get some more sleep too.

Nothing much to report

I had the rest of the soup for lunch with some more hemp seeds sprinkled on top and it really is more filling than it seems once you've let it go down! A lot of people were curious what it was but again no negative comments or questions which lead me to talk about my diet, which is so refreshing. Not that I expect this but I am usually on guard. Anyway, still no time for green juicing! I am literally working until late at night every night and so can't bring myself to get out of bed any earlier in the morning to make it!! I need to get into school even earlier tomorrow as well. So not much to report really, am just trying to keep in the habit of blogging!!

Really need to start thinking about Christmas menus though! My dad said we would talk about it and make sure there was something I could eat. And he volunteered this suggesting as well which I was really pleased about. I don't even realise it half the time but I do always expect to have to 'make do' when really it would not be unreasonable for people to try and include me. We are also going to Marracech in January and my Dad has rang them and told them I am a vegetarian and is now worried that he needs to call back and tell them I am in fact a vegan. I said I really didn't envisage any problems, as I am more than happy to just go with it and I always manage to find something, but did voice a concern that when you say 'vegetarian' this is usually taken as a cue to roll out the cheese!! So almost better to say nothing and then you might at least get some unadulterated vegetables.
Anyway I am sure it will be fine!

Kate's green soup

I got out Kate Magic's 'Raw Magic' book for the first time in ages the other night. I decided that tonight I would make this soup as a starter. (It was pretty filling too) Something I've never made before and it was very nice. It is called 'Jonny's luminous soup' in the book. My housemates said it was an awesome colour and looked really tasty. I also had 'cheeky chilli' last night (also in Raw Magic) which is one of my favourites.

Incidently, I am going to Manna in Brighton on Saturday 28th November to a 'dinner party' event with Kate Magic!! I am really looking forward to it as it has been ages since I've gone to any raw event. Will be great to connect with some raw people again! Anyone who is reading this and is coming along - be sure and look out for me! Can't wait to get some of Kate's wonderful life-loving vibes in my direction!!

Tired....

I am so tired this week. Haven't had time for green juice any morning this week and am feeling the difference. (So tonight I decided to make one when I got instead!) I'm also starting to think the dark and the cold are beginning to affect me too. School is such hard work because there is so much to take in!! I am just starting to get my head around it all but am really nervous about teaching my first lesson to the whole class on my own. I need something to really boost my confidence.

A few things I haven't mentioned. A while ago I took my blog address and personal information about being a raw vegan off my facebook page. Why? Because I began to wonder whether people would judge me as being a bit strange. When I think back to my old perceptions of what a vegan was, it was someone a bit fanatical about animal rights. I wonder if it would put men off me as well. How will they take me to dinner at their parent's house? What about going out for dinner? At the moment I have no way of telling whether this would be the case but it has occured to me. Some teachers in the staff room today said how lovely my food looked and asked if I was a vegetarian. I said yes. I didn't say I was a vegan in case they thought this was a bad thing, or in case they judge me on it. Vegetarianism seems to be 'ok' somehow!

The good news is I am going to a dinner party/talk with Kate Magic in Brighton in a few weeks time.

Can't wait for the weekend to have a break. Off to do some lesson planning...

comment

Hi Bo, thanks for getting in touch! and thanks for your lovely message : ) I don't seem to be able to put comments on my own blog so am having to write an entry in reply. I wrote down everyone's email addresses before we left but unfortunately couldn't find them when i got back home, which is why I haven't been in touch with anyone! Would you put your address in another comment for me? Anyway hope you're well! Amy x

Observations on healing

On signing in to write this entry I found a comment on last night's entry from a new follower, so was very happy about that! This has motivated me to keep the blogging up! : )

Just wanted to note down a little observation before I forget - two weeks ago I got a massive bruise on my leg from hitting it on the corner of a desk - I have been amazed at how quickly and neatly it is healing! It has not once gone that nasty yellow colour but it is just shrinking, presumably around the actual point of impact, leaving nice new coloured skin around it. Wow! Could it be the power of all these green juices I have been having (up to two a day last week) and all that chlorophyll being so similar to something in your blood... need to read up more about this!

Also, I don't know whether anyone has noticed but that is a microwave and a george foreman grill in the background on the picture of my new blender! I have moved out now and so no longer use 'my raw kitchen' from my parents' house. Will have to do a post on my new kitchen soon. Even though I am sharing a kitchen with one cooked vegetarian and three cooked omnivores (sounds so funny calling them that) the arrangement is just as good for me as it was before! I have never believed my diet would cause me any serious practical difficulties in living in a cooked food world, and this continues to be the case. In fact I am sure that this belief is the reason I have no problems!

Woke up really late today (Sunday) so I obviously did need more sleep. Off to make a green juice now : )

Orange chocolate avocado pudding

Might seem like an obvious combination but I have never put orange in my choco-aco pudding before. I just did. Magic.

1 avocado
1 medium banana
cacao powder
carob powder
desert spoon agave
fresh orange juice

I love my salad dressing of:
Umeboshe plum paste
Ginger
Garlic
Lemon juice
tiny bit of olive oil

Had it tonight on green beans, brocoli (chopped very small), sliced mushrooms and grated courgette. Mushrooms soften a very crunchy salad like this and grated courgette is also lovely and soft and very filling too.

I got a new hand-held grater today and used it on the ginger, but unfortunately a lot of the ginger got stuck on the grater! I also got some new mixing bowls!!

Realising the importance of getting enough sleep today. Raw is great for energy and I have needed less sleep since going raw, but sleep is still necessary!

I have been thinking about what I will make for my first raw Christmas. Last year I was ill with a water infection and for the first time in my life I took one look at my dinner and just didn't want it! Perhaps not the best memory of my last conventional Christmas dinner... U have spotted some whole raw cranberries in the supermarket today but they are so expensive! They have also got whole shell-on nuts now so I bought a mixed bag plus a nut cracker today. So I am starting to think Christmas will be a great time for raw food!

Right I'm off to make a chocolate avocado pudding for desert!

The last month in pictures

Lillies and 'ornamental cabbages' from my sister for my birthday!!; the gourmet raw dish my mum went to much trouble to make for my birthday - it meant the world - ; banana, pineapple and strawberry smoothies made with my new blender; the new blender/food processor I got for my birthday! It is fantastic - I was a very lucky girl!

Return to the blog

So much has been going on with me and raw food and I just haven't been blogging! It has made me realise how much of my life is based on habit - I have got out of the habit of writing entries and I really want to get back into it!! So here goes.

Last time I wrote, I said that I was being tempted back towards cooked food. My intake of it has certainly increased, but in a way I am comfortable with. Typical day now is large green juice followed by a bowl of sunflower seeds, avocado and hemp seeds, salad of some description for lunch, quite often have a bowl of porridge with cacao powder in it in the afternoon, raw veg meal in the evening usually with avocado, followed by a large bowl of porridge with banana or cacao powder before bed. I do find the oats very comforting before bed and they don't make me feel sluggish in the afternoon either. Am eating far fewer sprouts now too and hardly any fruit and no raisins. This way I don't get any symptoms, even when I have acidic food including tamari, miso, apple cider vinegar and tomatoes. It is definitely the fruit that is the problem.

I have been thinking about the reasons why I want cooked food. One is for comfort and warmth - I tend to eat porridge when I am already feeling sleepy, (and it tends to keep me in this state.) Another reason is to feel fuller, as I have been eating far fewer sprouted seeds and legumes. I have also had rice and vegan dahl at my parents' house a few times recently. This is definitely an emotional desire to share dinner with my family. I haven't found that cooked food has stifled my emotions as is so frequently written about on the raw scene; rather, this return to more cooked has coincided with being more aware of my emotions now than ever. I am so much happier now than I used to be and like to express this too, telling people, especially those who have helped me get to where I am. I am pretty high on gratitude at the moment and it feels fantastic!! Am also grateful to the people who told me moving out would be a bad idea, using my diet as part of the reason, saying I was so well set up as I was and it wouldn't work in shared kitchen with cooked meat eaters! On the contrary, in the new house it is not a problem at all. I am grateful to these people because it has increased my trust in my own convictions.

I have noticed that my concentration and focus hasn't been great recently and I wonder if this is part of the cumulative effect of raw food on my consciousness. (I have been getting the angel card 'focus' frequently too.) I am not so worried about how things turn out anymore, and increasingly want to just live in the moment. I have started taking B12 supplements in case this has anything to do with it.

Not come up with any more recipes recently but my favourite thing to whip up is still lentil pate! Sprouted lentils, half an avocado (optional) lemon juice, garlic (optional) half a red or white onion, olive oil and tamari, small tomato (optional). Magic with carrot sticks.

So all in all pretty positive still! It's like raw food is such a normal part of my life now that I can put the extra energy and love it gives me back into other areas of my life, rather than purely back into raw food as an end in itself. (I am absolutely loving my teaching course and can't wait to start my first placement on Monday!!) In sum, this is probably why I haven't been blogging so much. Now I have made this realisation, I realise I would like to blog again so I can continue documenting my journey in the hope that it will inspire others!!

Observations

A few things I forgot to mention on Saturday:

1.Working really hard and having lots of late nights, etc. doesn't make me as tired as it used to! I seem to be able to just keep going and going.

2.I have realised I am so much calmer about everything generally and much less inclined to let things get to me or wind me up. I can let things go much more easily (this is especially true since I have moved house)

As I said, I have been feeling quite hungry and feeling like I'm probably not eating enough ... I bought some brown rice, some rye bread with quinoa and amaranth in (random additions I know) and some sweet potatoes for roasting yesterday. I thought if I am eating porridge I might as well have this in the evenings too/instead.

Today, the new issue of 'Get Fresh' arrived!! Do you think this is a sign..?! (Of course I have no time to read it, but may work my way through a paragraph at a time if I am lucky.)

Tonight when I came in from work I had some raw food instead of porridge, then had porridge purely out of habit, although after the raw food, it really was not what I wanted. I think I just need some raw stodge instead. Have got my raw oat groats out - why have these been sitting at the back of my cupboard for ages? Don't see why I can't make raw porridge and have it slightly warmed. And I am all set to make bread tomorrow (wheatberries already sprouting, buckwheat and flax seeds at the ready), and some lentil, mushroom and walnut burgers, (both Chris's recipes!).

I really don't want to turn back to rice and potatoes!!! I am a raw vegan!!!!

I don't need to say it's been way too long since my last entry! I feel like I have started a completely new life which has taken up all my time, but I am still raw!! A lot has changed in my life and it is all for the better. They say that raw makes you realise your needs, what you can't tolerate, etc. and I have definitely experienced this. Whether it is entirely down to eating raw, who can say, but it has happened and I am so thankful.

Unfortunately with being so busy with uni and slowly settling into my new home I have not been feeding myself as well as I was, green juice and jogging have both gone out the window, and cooked porridge and raisins have been a daily feature of my diet, due to feeling still hungry after not having made myself a decent dinner. Looking back at photos from The Gower and Vienna, I look very skinny as well which I don't like. I can't see it in the mirror, only in photos, which is strange.

So that is an update of where I am at. Here is a photo of a decent curry dinner I made myself tonight to mark the beginning of eating more calories!



It is a red pepper, courgette, mushroom, red onion and lentil curry.

Here are a few other photos I have taken and not got round to loading on...!

I was in awe of sunflower seeds which go green and purple when sprouted - the best colours in the world. Second is the first lentil pate I made with my new hand blender ... oh yeh the hand blender - I got a bargain one and it is fantastic!

Avocado baby!

I was reading some children's books in the library for my uni course and found one called 'Avocado Baby' by John Burningham. It was about a new baby born to a 'weak' family, who hoped it would be strong not weak like them! It refused all food apart from avocados, and then it was really strong and able to fend off his siblings' bullies!! Thought this was quite thought provoking considering children are brought up to believe babies must have (cows) milk! Eating avocados does not make you violent though!

I forgot to say I also made an awesome lentil and onion pate the other day using puy lentils, brown lentils, 1/2 a red onion, lemon juice and hemp oil! Colour was amazing and you could call it hot in taste as well from the onion. hmhmhmhmh .....

Keeping It Simple

well, not much to report at the moment... I am back at uni now and haven't had much time for experimenting in the kitchen : (

It came out at lunch time in conversation with my new uni friends today that I was a raw vegan. They were all interested and said they bet I had loads of energy! This is true of course, only I still keep going to bed too late so have been a bit tired this week. Induction week at uni is surprisingly tiring as well: even though we don't seem to be doing much yet, it is all the new information to take in and getting used to the campus, etc. It will be easier next week when we are settled and ready for the work to really start.

I am going to increase my focus on two things:

One: start increasing the focus of my own diet to how to keep it quick and simple (while remaining tasty and nutritious of course!)

Two: to try and get more of these yummy raw simplicities slipped into my family's diet and see what happens... the first thing I will do is start putting out some raw nibbles for them before dinner (they are quite partial to crisps, dip, nuts etc.) starting with sprouted sunflower seeds and perhaps some raw humous if I want to spoil them. It is time to stop thinking about myself so much and start thinking of others!! They do genuinely enjoy some of it in snack form so hopefully I can get some loved-up raw goodness inside them!

Raw Vegan in Vienna - Days 4 and 5 and reflection on the trip

Well, I am back home now and this is my first chance to blog - basically it was much more of the same on day 4 and for the day of the journey home: green salad, parsley, avocado, sprouts, sweetcorn on the cob and bananas! Living off sprouts, veg and avocados is pretty cheap and speedy as well, both of which I am going to need now I am a full-time student again!!

It is amazing just how many bakery places there are in Vienna! Like our Greggs in Britain, but many more companies. You can't get very far without running into one, especially on the underground. It is the same in Frankfurt from what I remember when I was there a few years ago. I don't understand how people can live off bread as a staple part of their diet! Not to mention all the ham and cheese.

I was organized going out there but it did not occur to me until I was at the airport that I didn't have much in the fridge for when I got home last night! But there was enough to rustle up a coleslaw ... yum. (However no greens so still no juice this morning!! Tomorrow I will definitely have one!!) I was hardly tired when I got home either even after getting to bed at 2am on Sunday morning. I have noted consistent energy before and the more I stick with raw the better this gets - it is amazing. Again, now my uni course has started I am going to need the ability to have an hour or so less sleep when necessary!

My dad asked me today whether I was weighing myself because I look "very thin' apparently! I don't see this as a problem: my energy levels are fantastic and I am no more hungry than I used to get between meals, in fact less so. Also, I thought today before lunch that I can't remember the last time I had that very embarrassing growling stomach I always used to get before lunch, even after a mid-morning snack. I can't remember if I used to feel this hunger last time I got this thin living off cooked veg, white rice and chicken. Probably. Anyway, I would like to put some weight on, but remain feeling as light and energetic as I do now. Clothes are a bit of a problem at the moment as many are too big now but I don't want to buy loads of stuff I am going to put weight on. I also think that the weight of raw vegans can't really be compared to that of cooked foodies; the BMI thing just doesn't apply as this is based on a conventional diet. I don't believe in BMI even for cooked foodies actually, especially for women, because of their boobs! If you are tall and thin with small boobs it will say you are underweight, and if you are short and thin with big boobs it will probably say you are overweight!! I think counting calories is also flawed but I won't go into that now!

All in all I am very happy to be back in my kitchen after best part of a fortnight away - makes me realise how lucky I am to have it!

Right I gotta go and flip my bread in the dehydrator and go to bed!