28-Day Summary

Well it’s been 28 days of raw food. I wish I could say it’s been 28 days of only raw food but I can’t. Which means I still haven’t accomplished my goal of a 30-day raw experiment. The good news, however, is that I’m really excited to keep on eating raw food and to really do the 30-day trial. I’m starting March 1st, 2012. I’ll try not to do too much damage in the day off between trials!


What I’ve noticed so far:  I feel better and I sleep better. My skin looks better and I can run farther than before. I am a little more flexible and don’t walk like an old lady from bed to bathroom in the mornings. I haven't lost my taste for sugar completely although I tend to really enjoy the veggies now. I lost a few pounds (around 4 over all because I put on a couple the last week when I got off track). I had planned on losing much more than that but if I’m honest with myself, it’s actually a miracle I didn’t gain any weight. I ate A LOT of food. I ate when I wasn’t hungry. I ate more than April made for me to eat. I ate extra raw and non raw foods that I wanted at the time. (Food cravings and/or emotion eating. ) I ate everything April brought because it was tasty or healthy and because I can’t waste food! The kids were not fighting over who got to drink the blue green algae juice so that left me.
I had a week or so where I had some detoxing symptoms and felt pretty crummy. I didn’t work out on those days. When I did feel fine I tended to ease up on my workouts as well because I was still in the cleansing phase and didn’t want to slow down my detox by working too hard. I can really come up with some great excuses for not working out, can’t I?

Now that I feel like I’m pretty much detoxed I would like to step up my workouts and see what I can do. No more wimping out- I mean backing off during detoxing-it’s time to go all out. I want to be able to run and not be weary. I want to hike like a mountain goat and to swim like a fish. I’ve been wondering about the whole aging athlete thing. I’m not an athlete at the moment (not even close) but I used to be. I’ve been walking and hiking and running to prepare for some races but I’m feeling the urge to return to the water.

I was a swimmer in college and I’ve been really curious lately. I wonder if it’s possible to compensate for an antique body. Can a really clean diet and hard work make up for the extra years? Is it even possible to have the same focus I had in college now that I have kids, dogs, house and husband to worry about? How close can I get to my college swimming times? I’m the same height and only 25 pounds heavier! If I lose the weight and eat better than I did in college, how fast can I swim? Will a raw vegan diet help or hinder performance? What about the internal engine? Can I get my resting heart rate, my cholesterol and my blood pressure back to college athlete levels? When do you get to the athletic point of no return? I’m going to find out. As of March 1st I’m officially in training. No more ice-cream! (Especially when I've had sooooo much ice cream that it starts growing out of the top of my head.)