Rawctober

Have you ever put waffles in a microwave, set the timer for 5 minutes and walked away thinking that thick black smoke and acrid fumes weren’t about to consume the common area of your dorm?

I have!

In my defense I never used a microwave until my freshman year of college. Five minutes in a toaster oven is way different then five minutes in a microwave. Needless to say my friend Nicole C., who  helped me scrape burnt waffle off the bottom of the microwave, will never ever let me forget about the “waffle incident”. Click here for a short video that she claims depicts how I used to cook in college. Imagine her surprise and the surprise of everyone else in my life when I recently announced that I was going to attempt to eat raw vegan food for a month.

What do you mean by raw vegan?

Raw foodism (or rawism) is a diet consisting of uncooked, unprocessed, and often organic foods. Raw veganism combines the concept of veganism (no animal products) with raw foodism. 

Why?

I like to challenge myself. In the days before Lyme disease challenging myself usually meant signing up for races that required a lot of training and the desire to push my body to the limit. Since being diagnosed with Lyme disease, I cannot race anymore and am always looking for other ways to test myself in addition to the challenge of recovering from Lyme. At first the act of actually preparing my own food while following the doctor suggested food restrictions was a task that seemed insurmountable, but now it is like second nature to me. A raw diet seemed like a good next step. Click here and here for a refresher on my self-made path to becoming a chef.

When?

Long before the raw food idea popped into my brain, Kathleen, my roommate from college had planned to come visit me in DC over Columbus Day Weekend. Since I had never attempted to prepare raw food in my life and didn't want to subject her to my food experimentation, I decided to go raw in mid-October after she had returned home. Having lived with me for 4 years, she is no stranger to being subject to my great ideas and probably would have been cool about trying out whatever I was making, but I also really wanted to hit up Cactus Cantina; the Tex-Mex restaurant in walking distance from American University where many a fun night started back in the day.  We had a great weekend that included lots of laughs, catching up with old friends and Mexican food. On October 14^th I woke up with a food hangover, and then plunged head first into the raw-unknown... well, unknown to me.  

How Are You Going To Get Enough Protein?

When I started mentioning the raw vegan experiment to friends and family, everybody was immediately concerned that I wasn’t going to get enough protein. This is a common concern that people voice the minute they hear you are not going to be eating meat; it appears that many people do not think that plant-based food offers up enough protein to sustain living. Throw the word “raw” into the mix and the protein questions multiply exponentially. Truth be told I really had no idea how to answer the protein question in the early days of kicking the idea around, because in typical Julie fashion I declared my intention, and then did research after the fact.

“Sorry I’m Late, I Was Removing Chunks of Banana From My Hair”

Early on in my research I came across do it yourself raw vegan face and hair care product recipes. About a month before my official  raw vegan experiment began I made a cacao avocado face mask and banana olive oil hair mask. The face mask, made out of cacao, avocado and raw honey was a smashing success. It smelled delightful, it made my skin soft and what didn't end up on my face ended up in my belly because it can be a face mask or a dessert.

I also made a hair mask out of bananas and olive oil, and while it made my hair feel incredibly soft and silky, I did not use ripe enough bananas. For a good 4 days after rinsing, I was constantly picking bits of bananas out of my hair. I plan to try this one again with an overly ripe banana, because the results (minus the banana bits) were amazing.  
  
Two Weeks Felt Like A Month

Eating completely raw is incredibly time consuming and labor intensive, and also requires a lot of planning. Most of the recipes I came across online called for soaking the ingredients over night before use in meal preparation.  For instance, the “mock tuna salad” pictured to the right, called for cashews, walnuts, sunflowers seeds and pumpkin seeds to be soaked overnight before preparing the dish. Soaking raw nuts helps aid digestion. For this recipe I made mayonnaise out of cashew nuts, olive oil, raw apple cider vinegar, lemon juice and salt in a food processor. The “tuna” consisted of walnuts, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds that also needed to take a whirl in the food processor before being combined with the mayonnaise and the other vegetables that were mixed into the salad. It was a lot of work, for something that you don't actually have to cook; but it was a rawesome!

Sprouting, which is a great source of protein takes two to three days, sometimes longer for whatever you are sprouting to be ready for consumption.  My first sprouting experience was with mung beans (pictured in the protein section above). Once the dried beans were procured (bottom half of the photo), they had to soak over night, and then throughout the next two to three days I had to rinse the beans twice a day as they hung out in a mason jar covered with cheese cloth as they sprouted (the top part of the picture). After I successfully sprouted mung beans I branched out and experimented with buckwheat groats and quinoa. Before I knew it I had jars of sprouts taking over my kitchen. I have yet to try sprouting lentils, but those are next on my list.

I made it for two weeks eating a completely raw vegan diet. I had to start integrating "not raw" vegan food back into my diet at least once a day because I started losing weight, and that was not my intention. There is no need for me to lose anymore weight then I already have throughout my treatment thus far. However, I thoroughly enjoyed researching and preparing raw food and will be integrating it into my diet moving forward.

Life Is Uncertain, Eat Dessert First

I have really taken a liking to making raw snack bars and desserts. Not only do they taste great,  there is minimal prep work involved. The hardest part is cleaning out my food processor. The fig bars pictured to the left are one of my favorites. The ingredients are oats, walnuts, figs, coconut oil, sea salt and water. Switch out the figs for dates, and the walnuts for almonds and you have delicious date bars. Switch out the dates for goji berries and add some ginger and you have goji berry ginger bars. So versatile.

One night I came across a recipe for raweo cookies, you really can find anything on the Internet if you look hard enough. I have made them twice and am still tinkering with the ingredients for the filling. I hope my local friends are ready to pig out on raweos and homemade hemp milk when I deem them tinkered to perfection.

This past weekend I made my very first raw vegan key lime pie. It was rawtastic and I intend to make another one for Thanksgiving. When you think Thanksgiving feast, don't you automatically envision a raw vegan key lime pie? I do. I hope my family does as well.

Lady of Leisure

I’m not big into politics. Yes, I live in Washington DC. Yes, I am a Federal employee. But it’s true, I am not big into politics. Unfortunately Lyme disease and politics go hand in hand and as I wade through the murky Lyme disease treatment/recovery waters, it is one of the only political topics I will gladly talk your ear off about. This past February I wrote a three part post that documented the politics behind government agencies hindering research on Lyme disease; click here for a refresher, or to read it for the first time. 

Recently, politics and my Lyme disease battle crossed paths again in the form of a government shutdown; and I have to admit that Lyme disease-wise it was refreshing. Don’t get me wrong, I am not condoning the decision to partially shut down the government from October 1-16, 2013. In my opinion nothing was gained politically by that stunt. I could go on and on about how the shutdown was a waste of money and set off a far-reaching chain of negative events for federal employees and those throughout the United States who depend on federal programs that were effected during the shutdown, but like I said, I am not really into politics, and you’re not reading this blog to gain insight into my political musings. Let's get back to the Lyme.

Don’t Bother Me, I’m On Furlcation

A common theme in many discussions surrounding my health is that people don't understand how I have managed to keep a positive attitude and work throughout the scary months leading up to my diagnosis, and throughout my on-going treatment despite the fact I am exhausted and experiencing painful symptoms. For many years I pushed myself through grueling athletic events with a smile on my face as a hobby, and not many people understand what drove me to do that either. I feel like the same thing applies in terms of how I have chosen to take on Lyme disease. I have previously mentioned that some days I cannot get out of bed, but if the pain is manageable I much rather be at work or hanging out with friends; it is the way I am wired. 

For the first time since I was diagnosed with Lyme disease I had a nice chunk of schedule free time... well almost schedule free time. Due to the fact I was furloughed during the shutdown I found myself with a lot of time on my hands. I still had to wake up every day and take my supplements and medications that need to be ingested an hour before I eat. An hour later I would eat breakfast and then take the rest of my antibiotics on a full stomach. And then I would do it again around dinner time. But other than that, nobody was expecting me to be anywhere and I took full advantage of that. If I woke up in the morning and didn’t feel well, I would go back to sleep after completing my antibiotic ritual. If I slept all day, then that is what my body needed to do. If I woke up a few hours later feeling refreshed, I filled my day with relaxing activities like furlough lunches, reading, trying out new recipes, watching Breaking Bad, and walking around town to take pictures of all of the signage and barricades that were telling people what was closed due to the government shutdown.

During the first week of the government shutdown we had “summer in October weather” which inspired an outing to an apple orchard with a couple of my similarly furloughed friends. When not wandering around the orchard remarking about how nice it was to be out of the city and marveling at the vast apple selections, I was silently worrying about picking up ticks. This is now a regular occurrence for me when I spend time outdoors in non-paved areas near the woods. The last thing I want is to get bit  by another tick-borne illness carrying tick. Truth be told I also get concerned when I see all of my friends posting pictures of their kids playing in tall grass and leaves, but that is another story.  Thank goodness that the tick-free Radio Flyer wagon offered up a safe spot to rest my tired legs.

The beautiful weather also inspired me to do the most thorough cleaning and organizing project I have done since moving in to my condo. I had the usual aches and pains but I was so energized and well–rested that nothing was slowing me down, which all changed when a cold front arrived and blew the unseasonably warm weather out of town. Thanks to the Lyme disease I ended up with stabbing pains in many of my joints; it made me grumpy and I chose not to leave my condo for a couple of days. I was hoping the weather related joint and muscular pain that I experienced last winter would not be as severe this time around, but sadly I must report that the cool/damp weather is still my nemesis. The cooler weather was the catalyst that ended my outdoor activities and caused me to sit on my couch for hours at a time watching Breaking Bad. To say I have become addicted to a show about methamphetamine is an understatement. Since the furlough ended it has been hard for me to adjust to the fact that I can no longer watch 5 episodes in a row on a weekday afternoon while lying on the couch in my pajamas. 

All kidding aside, for the past few weeks I have been having a hard time adjusting to being back at the office. It was refreshing to have a chance to let my body do what it wanted to do, when it wanted to do it. Having to be back on a time schedule has left me feeling more exhausted than usual. The fluctuating weather pattern we have experienced over the past couple of weeks has added to my discomfort. Adjusting to the time change is taking longer than usual, but I am back in the swing of things. I wake up early enough to partake in my daily morning antibiotic ritual before I head to work to play catch up on deadlines that were missed during the furlough. If I have enough energy after work I go to yoga or I catch up with friends. Often I doze off on the metro heading home from work which is a signal that my day is over and of course I am still preparing all of my own food while wishing I could just eat ice cream and pizza for dinner every night without repercussion. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go watch some Breaking Bad.