Raw Vegan Diet - What's in my pantry?

Yesterday I bought for the first time Raw Vegan wraps, I checked online where to find them and I found out that my local health store had them so I went there and I bought 3 different types: one dry Raw Vegan wraps made with Spirulina and vegetables, two different types from the live organic brand – a new healthy restaurant that sells also products in various stores in the city – the wraps are one type with spinach and other ingredients and the second one with sundried tomatoes, contrary to the Spirulina ones, these wraps need to be stored in the fridge. I think they are handy to prepare a good snack to bring with me; I can use it with some dressing sauce like guacamole or tahini and mixed vegetables. I noticed that there was also one with coconut, maybe I could do a sort of crepes with that – but I didn't buy it yet, just wondering how they taste first and if I really like it then I'll experiment new flavours.

Before starting my Water Fast I frozen a lot of food, even sliced lemons, so I would not waste anything – well apart of half cucumber that I really could not save. I have already planned a defrosting time for all this food I frozen, well not for all really, I might need to go slowly in the process and maybe use some of the stuff for smoothies; in the past weeks I never prepared smoothies, not that I don't like them – quite the contrary – it's just my crazy idea that I feel I eat more food if drinking and not chewing. I also saw a YouTube video that was negatively commenting on drinking rather than chewing food, since the digestion can start in the mouth when we chew food, if we drink this doesn't really happen so we lose this important step for our digestive system, giving it extra work basically. Not sure if this theory is really true but somehow makes sense, maybe I could start with eating a small amount of solid food and then proceed with the smoothie. Too complicated though…

I'm thinking on buying a food processor, to make those dates dough that I've seen in many recipes, still dreaming about food and desserts! This coming Friday is Black Friday so I'm hoping to find good deals and buy a new food processor with a good price. I don't want to spend too much money but also I don't want to buy anything that will result on being useless. Talking about kitchen accessories I'm also thinking on buying a smaller wet container for my Vitamix, either the 32 or 48 ounces, not sure yet. Actually I've seen it the Vitamix Dry Container as well, but if I buy the food processor I think it will suffice for whatever dry food I need to process. The smaller Vitamix could be useful, I usually do small batches of food, since I'm cooking just for myself. Sometime I do bigger portions but for ice cream for instance, I really don't need any extra amount. At the moment I'll hold on all these purchases though, I'm spending too much money in food!

I'm also fully stocked on dry food; every time I see those Organic Pitted Dates at Winners I buy a little bag. I also have dry organic figs, organic raw almonds, organic raw cashews, organic cacao powder, shredded coconut, organic sundried tomatoes, and I even found the organic dry mulberries – I bought two bags since I don't find them often. I bought few days ago in Chinatown a couple of little bags of goji berries to mix in my salads or in any smoothies, I thought they will be with a lower fat content than any nut I can buy or eat and they're sweet. Yesterday I bought a bag of Raw Organic Kale green chips, made with kale and a mix of vegetables and spices; they're very low in calories and great for a quick snack. I got tempted and bought a bag of my favourite Raw Organic Chocolate macaroons, made with all Organic ingredients and coconut, the only thing I don't like tis the agave in it, but if I'm disciplined once in a while is not a big deal. I still have some white sesame seeds that I can use to make tahini, but I also want to buy just a small quantity of black sesame seeds, to use on top of my dishes, or to make black tahini who knows. Other seeds that I'm storing in the fridge are: chia seeds, hemp seeds, grounded chia seeds and Organic Flax seeds; I also have Raw Organic Almond flour, Coconut flour, Vegan Chocolate Protein powder and Spirulina powder. You would think that I should not shop for weeks now, but I'm always looking around and thinking of something that I miss and I need to buy it!

HCG Diet - Avoiding fruit to remove sugar cravings

Last week one of my coworkers here in office brought me a little bag of apples that she got at the farmer's market during the weekend. Although I appreciated much the gesture those apples caused me lots of issues during the days I was eating them, so much that now I had to cut completely any type of fruit from my HCG Diet. The problem that I have with apples is common to many HCG-ers, and maybe other dieters I don't know. Apples are very sweet and high in carbs, even with just having one apple a day my cravings curbed uncontrollably; I started to crave sugar more and more, I had an ice-cream on Saturday, the coconut chocolate bar that was in my drawer on Friday, I had a chocolate protein bar on Sunday as well as tons of pecans and almonds mixed with cocoa and my Greek yogurt last night. I couldn't stand the urge of eating sugar, the more I was desiring the more Stevia I was drinking to cope with my cravings, it was terrible, and because of all these bad food choices I had over the weekend, I did not take HCG yesterday and also it's been now 2/3 days without me checking my weight. The psychological impact on seeing the scale going up would be devastating to me, so I'm holding for now and trying to get back into ketosis and strict HCG Diet, or as they call it: POP – Perfect On Protocol.

From now on - and most likely for the whole P2 phase - I will not have fruit, instead I'm adding plain 0% Greek yogurt, here and there, but just ¼ of a cup as breakfast snack and maybe late night treat. I'm not concerned much about the missing fruit really, because I know that without fruit and grissini or Melba toast, I can have an extra serving of vegetables without compromising my weight loss. This morning for breakfast I had half peeled cucumber, it was absolutely delicious, but of course when you're hungry everything taste good!

Right now is almost lunch time and I'm starving, not sure if it's a HCG dosage issue or just the recent changes I had in my diet, I'm trying to drink something without Stevia but really this coffee is absolutely disgusting, so much that my water in comparison never tasted so good instead. I know that takes time to get used to a new flavour, to trick your brain on what it is expecting to drink and what I am actually drinking, but maybe I should not start with coffee, maybe the various types of sweet teas could work better in this adaptation phase. Wish me luck!