Taking care of my Fruits & Vegetables - Getting ready for my 7-Day Water Fast

Today I just want to give few updates on how I am doing with my Raw Vegan Diet and my cravings. I'm working from home today so it is generally bad when I do it, because it's just me and my kitchen temptations. I love cooking and I always look forward to find a new gourmet recipe that I want to try, new flavours to taste and so on. So in short I ate like a pig all day basically.

Since I planned to start a 7-day Water Fast very soon, I wanted to be sure I will not waste any of the food that I bought in the past few days, so I started to organize all my fruits and vegetables. Let's face it fruits are very easy to freeze comparable vegetables. So I cut all the ripe fruits and stored in the freezer, so they can be ready to thaw or to use in any smoothie, at the end anything that is frozen does not expire and can be used any time in the future – I'm sure I will have plenty of opportunities, so I'm not worried when I can freeze produce. For the vegetables it's a little be tricky, I had to do a sort of preparation, especially for the tomatoes that I really don't feel confident on just freeze them like a do with the blueberries. To avoid wasting my Roma tomatoes I prepared my first delicious Marinara sauce; I found an easy recipe on Pinterest and turned out very tasty. I used the Roma tomatoes, some extra sweet cherry tomatoes and my organic sundried tomatoes (with no oil). At the end I filled 2 containers that could be used for my zucchini noodles in the future, plus is a very low fat sauce and I like low fat so far.

For the huge amount of carrots that I have a had a different solutions, I saw a recipe of a Raw Vegan carrots cake that I would like to try so I shredded all my carrots and stored in plastic bags in the freezer, so they're ready for the recipe once I'm good on doing it, the only thing I regret of not doing is taking note on how much carrots I had in each bag, I should have weighted and labelled each of them so I had an easier way using it during the recipe execution, oh well I guess I will figured out once I'm doing it the cake.

The 2 odd zucchini that I bought at China Town the other day I just washed and put them in a bag, I didn't want to do noodles really, I might just use them for sauces or something like that, to make the sauce creamer as I do with regular zucchini sometimes. I do have also some chopped carrots and zucchini in the freezer as well, I can always use for smoothies or other blended recipes done with the Vitamix, if I thaw them in the fridge for a couple of days I'm sure they'll be ok….hopefully.

Today I prepared for the first time the vegetable wraps that I always see on those Raw Vegan recipes, I had a bunch of organic red Swiss Chard and I used my veggie-cheese with some carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini noodles, it was delicious! It is really not easy to eat them since they were falling apart but overall the taste was great, I might not do often though, not because they're complicated to do it but just for the general mess while eating, well unless I improve my skills as wraps-eater.

I still need to take care of some of the fruits left behind; I have mangoes, apples, pears, bananas and three persimmons. Once they're ripe enough I'll chop everything and freeze, ok maybe I'll eat a couple of apples or bananas before then. The persimmons are in season right now and although I always hated this fruit growing up, I wanted to give them a second chance this time and use it for my pumpkin pie recipe. I might cut them and freeze for now though since I'm not planning to do any pie before I complete my 7-Day Water Fast; maybe I'll prepare a good pie to bring for my Christmas dinner invitations, let's see – this year will be a challenge eating Raw Vegan in an Italian dinner family setup!

Raw Vegan Diet - Fats make you fat!

My experience so far, with my Raw Vegan Diet has been good; the only thing I complain to myself is the introduction of nuts and seeds in my everyday food. Nuts especially have a high fat content, and I noticed that as soon as I started to eat them, my weight went up immediately, not to mention the cravings that I started to have, dreaming about my banana ice-cream with insane amount of peanut butter powder! I guess I underestimate myself thinking I could resist to the temptations. I did partially to be fair, but not last night. I believe I ate 20 dates with almond milk, 10 dried figs and 2 chia seeds pudding in cacao powder, not to mention my huge salad with tahini and guacamole dressing! All the food I had caused me a sharp pain on the left side of my abdomen and huge belly that I still have. The Binge Eater that is in me is back in "shape", somebody please save me from the dark side of my inner self!

I felt very depressed after and I went to bed, I was having purging thoughts, thinking to go to the gym at 5:00 AM and then again this afternoon to the Body Attack class, also having second thoughts on when to start my next Water Fast. So I started to put some of my food in the freezer, so I can start my Water Fast sooner and I don't have to throw away anything. This afternoon I planned to chop some vegetables and freeze them too, as well of some of the fruit that is already ripe.

My plan originally was to start my second Fast on December 5^th, but I want to get rid of these cravings as soon as possible, so I might start sooner. I feel sick today, I had way too much food; my body doesn't like it at all. I just had my breakfast, and although I split in two parts the amount of fruits that I was supposed to eat this morning, I also had the last chia seeds pudding that was in the fridge and I brought with me the little macaroons with pecans and dates that I bought yesterday at the supermarket, just so I can share with people here and I won't eat them all without shame.

It's been a couple of days that my bowel movements are not anymore the same as before, I think is because of the fat content that I'm eating, it's true that doesn’t help digestion and makes feel you like crap, I have the proofs really.

If you are looking for a Raw Vegan Diet that will help you maintaining weight and makes you feel good: avoid as hell FATS!! Fats are not your friends in a Raw Vegan Diet – unless you are trying to gain weight. That's why is called: HCLF Diet, High Carbs Low Fat Diet. I cannot believe what a big difference I personally experienced introducing fats, especially nuts really. For things like seeds or avocados, I didn't have much problems, neither cravings really – but nuts became a nightmare. Every time I was going to a store I was repeating to myself not to buy any type of nuts whatsoever, but for some reasons I was leaving the store full of almonds, walnuts and cashews, unbelievable the Binge Eater that plans the binges again, I hate myself sometimes.

One Week after my Water Fast

It's been one week now since I completed my Water Fast and my refeeding process is done too, successfully I would say. I did not experience any issue with my stomach, my BMs are optimal and regular; my weight is being ok so far. Yesterday I noticed that I basically release with my BMs what I ate 3/4 days ago. So some of the weight I gained is due to some water retention and food in my digestive system / colon, which is a normal and expected behaviour.

So far my Raw Vegan Diet is going extremely well, I feel blessed every time I have my huge salad with everything in it, from greens to tons of delicious fruits, I absolutely love it. Today I am supposed to receive my spiralizer so I can start to create more variations for my salads, adding zucchini and cucumbers in a more fun way, enjoying more vegetables to maintain under control my weight as well.

During my lunch break today I went to Winners to buy some Buckwheat but I could not find it, I bought instead Organic Shelled Hemp Seeds; I never had Hemp Seeds in my life I think, and I read online that they are really healthy and with an amazing nutty flavour, so I'm really looking forward on creating my own pesto recipe without using pinenuts, not that I don't like pinenuts or anything – quite the opposite – but I want to try to keep my fat content as low as I can, till my weight is stabilized. I also bought a little bag of Organic Raw Dark Chocolate Nibs and some pitted organic dates (which I already indulged in at lunch having four of them as my dessert).

I watched a lot of YouTube videos of Raw Vegan Vloggers and read few articles about this type of Diet, what I need to do is to create a good 80/10/10 ratio of what I eat, trying to avoid fruits for dinner and having a big salad with anything I want in it, which I'm totally fine and happy to do it anyway. I noticed that most of the people tend to eat mostly fruits in a Raw Vegan Diet, but they also do a lot of exercises or workout activities to consume and earn their own carbs-fruits amount. Sometimes, watching those videos, I really think: WTH!! Is there anyone on YouTube and in the Raw Vegan community that actually has a 9-to-5 job?! Every video that I watch is from a girl that seems having nothing to do during the day that going to the gym or checking Facebook and emails on her computer; nobody that has a regular commute or wake up at 5:00 AM to get ready and go to work? Or unable to come back for lunch and cook for half hour?! WTH!!?! Sorry for my vent but I don't think I am the odd one here, most of the people in the world have a regular daily job, without having always time to spend two hours in the gym and cooking!

Water Fasting - Refeeding Process updates after 5 days

I'm still in a refeeding-mode I guess but I stopped counting days, I check my weight every morning, not my ketosis though, with all the fruits I'm having it doesn't make any sense. Today I was like 300gr more than yesterday; I had no bm since a couple of days so it really was expected anyway.

I feel ok with whatever I eat so far, I just cannot have much, my stomach is still in the small amount size type of meal, which is ok I guess, I definitely don't need to overeat. This morning I prepared again a smoothie, this time with half scoop of vegan proteins, similar to yesterday I feel the odd taste of the proteins in my mouth now, not a pleasant feeling, I will avoid the proteins altogether tomorrow. I added various fruits today, like strawberries, mangoes, papaya and 2 dates to give sweetness – all with some baby spinach. It was a delicious smoothie, my mistake was that I didn't want to bring it at work so I had 2 big glasses one after the other in just few minutes - since I was a bit late for work. Well my stomach didn't like it really, it started to hurt me a bit, not much but I definitely felt the pain. Lesson learned I guess.

Yesterday before going home I stopped to do some grocery shopping and buy some fruits and vegetables for dinner and today's meal for the office, I found one papaya that was so ripe and soft, it was absolutely delicious, I used for my salad a bit and today's breakfast as well. I also bought a mango, it was already peeled in a box with some blueberries and a piece of papaya; the mango was kind of hard and difficult to cut but it was delicious, I don't recall I ever had such a good mango. My personal preference goes to those mangoes with darker skin, I'm not a mangoes expert at all but I tried both and this hard one with darker skin, it might be cheaper in price for some reason, but I found it way better than the most expensive one.

After my Water Fast it's coming so natural for me enjoying these true flavours of the nature, I'm not missing at all the junk food I used to eat, I'm missing neither the coffee nor any other drink in general. In the morning, while I do my makeup I just sip on my bottle of water. I'm thinking on buying one of those big plastic glasses used for smoothies or mixed energy drinks, but I really want to remove from my morning routines having this smoothie, it's really not necessary if I can have a normal breakfast once in the office, with some fresh fruits. Maybe if I can start a good workout routine I will add something else to my diet, but for now it's just adding up calories for nothing.

Today for my mid-morning break I had, for the first time after so long, a detox tea  –  caffeine free but I hope it will help me with my detox process somehow; yesterday I noticed that drinking just hot water gives me tummy-pain and I don't want to do anything to my body that could generated uncomforted state in any way. I don't like the tea of course, so I might have next time in a month from now, my sweet tooth is not meant to enjoy these types of tea unfortunately.

Today for lunch I prepared a mixed salad, I literally thrown in the container whatever I had in the fridge: mixed greens, blueberries, papaya, watermelon, mango and cherry tomatoes, no dressing and no spices, just fresh fruits & vegetables. I wish I add spinach and some cucumbers but I will get them this afternoon with my grocery delivery, I will to reduce the fruits as much as I can going forward, it doesn't help with the weight management for sure. Too bad my spiralizer is still on its way and not delivered yet, I wouldn't mind preparing my salad with zucchini and cucumber noodles for tomorrow, oh well I will need to endure it.

Water Fasting - My Refeeding Plan

I want to add what I came up with for my re-feeding plan, after my 21+ Days Water Fast Journey. So far is my first draft; I'm not sure I'll modify some of the choices, I'm still debating if I should break my fast on fruits or on vegetables, I'm still investigating online the pros and cons of both choices (from a Binge Eater perspective) - I'll keep you updated!

Notes on my Diet

Based on my personal experience, I want to list what had an impact - positive and negative - on my Diet:

• Tomatoes hold my weight loss during the Strict Diet
• Asparagus helped me to lose weight and the fibers in it to go regularly
• Apart from water,  ANY type of drink consumed in large quantities made me constipated and bloated (including herbal teas) – as well as taking me out of ketosis
• Cabbage, although delicious, made me extremely bloated, constipated and hold my weight loss
• 2 Apples a day hold on my weight loss – do not eat more than one a day when possible
• Eating dinner late at night take me out of ketosis
• Fish is extremely good protein to lose weight
• Chicken made me gain weight and gassy (as well as turkey)
• Berries/Cantaloupe is the best fruit to lose weight during the Strict Diet – I'd suggest instead of any other fruit
• Goldfish crackers are better bread substitute than anything else
• Broccoli are heavy during the strict Diet – ideally the quantity of it should be very limited
• Yogurt is a perfect protein serving when on Strict Diet
• Not sleeping enough take you out of ketosis

Another week with Dr. Bernstein Diet

Today starts another week with my Dr. Bernstein Diet. I was happy this morning to see that I went a bit down my 58 Kg's plateau finally! I see things more positively now, this Diet really puts you in a starvation stress and the only thing you can think about is food and weight loss.

So I went to the clinic this morning for another abdomen injection and the nurse told me that, since I reached the goal they set for me, I'm now eligible to a 4 weeks Maintenance program for free.  It is great to know that I can continue without paying for Maintenance, but I'm not done yet with my weight loss so I'll continue till my month expires and I've lost all I need to lose.

I had few days last week, where I was not losing anything, I actually gained 1 Kg one day, and there's nothing more un-motivating - in this such strict Diet - than gaining weight while following the Plan exactly as required.

For me the solution was avoiding tomatoes, or at least this is what I changed in my Diet so far. I added asparagus, never been one of my favourite vegetables so I never actually had it in the past. I guess my body reacted to this unknown vegetable. Who knows? But in any case the nurse told me that usually asparagus, cabbage and celery are the vegetables that do the trick.

It's been 3 days in a row now that I'm checking my Ketones in the morning and the Ketostix is showing a moderate to high trace of it in my sample. It was confirmed by the nurse this morning as well, she told me it was the darker ketostix she had today so far.  I noticed that it's good in the morning, till after breakfast and then there's no trace of it in my urine samples. It could be due to the water intake that dilutes the ketones or the food, not sure really.

My lunch today was a bit different than usual, I'm becoming really good in preparing omelets so I decided to bring one in the office. Since the day-before-omelet is not really appealing to me, I cooked it this morning. I had the asparagus ready, cleaned and cut in a little bowl and all I needed to add was the egg whites, so I did it. This morning I mixed all the ingredients together with some garlic powder, salt and pepper on a PAM sprayed pan and cooked. It was a nice lunch, warm and healthy. I'm thinking to do a similar one for breakfast, like with zucchini e for dinner I can just have my delicious Shiritaki noodles with some vegetables. I found better results if I don't have my proteins at night.