Recipe: breakfast cake

I do have a little tasty treat to report, courtesy of Ani Phyo... Breakfast cake!

It's kinda like pancakes with maple syrup...

2 cups ground flax seed
1/2 cup raw agave syrup (or maple syrup)
1/2 TSP sea salt
2 TSP coconut flavoring/oil
1/2 cup water

Process in food processor. Top with maple syrup if you so choose -maple syrup is considered a "borderline" item like honey. Strict raw foodists don't use it, but lots do.

It's tasty and sweet and wow - the flax seeds really get the 'ole colon working hard!!

One day to go...

Tomorrow is the last full day of the diet, but I'll refrain from eating anything off of it until Friday night - partly to make up for having those noodles when I was sick and partly to have a real "Friday night date night" with Kirky. We haven't had one in a long time, and we're totally due for one.

I'm craving a fabulous filet something fierce!! I can't believe we're almost there!!!

One week to go

So we're in the final stretch. I don't feel like I have much to report. I'm feeling better, but still hacking and coughing all of the time. I'll take that over the fevers anyday. My appetite is pretty much back to normal. Diet has remained the same - Either juice or soaked buckwheat for breakfast, a salad or tomatoes and 1/2 an avocado for lunch, dinner is usually the same as lunch. I've become a huge fan of cherry tomatoes with just a little EVOO, a little salt & pepper, and some shredded basil. TASTY! Sure, it would be better with some fresh mozzarella, but in the meantime it still makes for a tasty treat.

My total weight loss to date is about 10 lbs with the help of my weekend illness and I'm officially back at my Miss Ohio competition weight. I'm curious how long I can remain there when we make our forage back into "normal food" territory. In some ways I'm looking forward to this being over, but in many ways I don't want it to be. I like eating right, I like focusing on health, and I like having something like this to do with Kirk.

A minor setback, Day 20

So I've been pretty darn sick since Friday night, fevered, dizzy, with no appetite. Sunday Kirk ventured out, bought a thermometer and we discovered my temperature was 103. So we headed to stat care (closed), then the ER. Turns out I just have a nasty virus so they gave me a power dose of motrin to break my fever and sent us on our merry little way.

I hadn't eaten since breakfast Saturday morning and this was Sunday night around 8:00, so I decided to break the diet for a meal to get my strength back up. I thought the most effective and non-upsetting thing would be to have some whole grain noodles. This turned out to be a mistake on several levels. First, they tasted awful and secondly a few hours later I had awful acid reflux, stomach cramps, and nausea. I got up around 1:30 a.m., threw up a little, and sat up watching TV until around 6:00 a.m.

So I'm back on the diet today and intend to add an extra day onto the end to make up for yesterday's breach.

Day 18

I am sick. Sick, sick, sick, sick, sick. Like fevered, dizzy, delirious, shivering, sweating sick. I had to work today anyway--Boo. But what can you do? People still need to get their married on. Let's hope this ends soon.

Day 16

We're officially over the 1/2 way point! It's all downhill from here, right? I really do feel differently that it's really a count-down now, vs. just counting up to the 1/2 way point.

The cold that has possessed me since Saturday is now starting to release its icy cold grip from my soul. I appreciate this. I know you're supposed to "feed a cold" but quite frankly the only thing I could really feed it was fruits, vegetables and vitamins. So I guess that's not really a bad thing.

Yesterday I had my cereal concoction for breakfast, leftover zucchini "fettucini alfredo" for lunch, and a salad and more cereal for dinner. I would post the fettucini recipe, but it wasn't bad, but it just wasn't anything worth retyping. It's from Ani Phyo.

Observations continue:
It is easier and more satisfying to just eat big salads and fresh fruit than to try to process them into something else. I've tried because it's what I thought I was supposed to be doing, but I really do feel nourished by a great big salad of spinach, some cranberries, almonds, and dressing. I think that is the best word to use--nourished. I see pizza commercials on TV and I can FEEL the joy of eating all of that oozing cheese, but those are just fleeting moments.

I do understand why people would want to eat only this type of food. It makes you feel healthy. Sure, it doesn't have that instant gratification of a big juicy steak or oozing cheese, but it does have a wonderful benefit. But am I going to turn raw vegan? I think not. But I do think that this little experiment gave me a newfound respect for those who do, plus it has reignited my love for fruits and veggies. It makes me want to incorporate more of this food into my diet. It really is food that feels good the entire time your body processes it.

Now would I recommend this diet to others? A difficult question to answer. The simple answer is that if you really want to try it for your health, I would recommend it to you. You will feel better, you will learn and understand a lot about fresh food. You will learn a lot about modern conveniences and decide if processed food is good for you or not (the answer will probably be no! I think even when I eat the dried fruits that I have which have additives, I can feel a difference in how I feel!)

But if you're interested in doing something like this just to lose weight and go on a regular "deprived diet," this is definitely the wrong diet for you. This isn't about deprivation. You should eat until you feel full and nourished and you should spend the extra money to buy the best products you can to give you the best vitamins, enzymes, etc that you can.

Now for the daily menu:
I had a HUGE bowl of buckwheat grout "cereal" this morning with a banana cinnamon mylk from Ani Phyo:
3 bananas
1 tsp cinnamon
4 cups water
1/2-3/4 cups soaked cashews
Blend until milky.

This is NOT as good as the almond vanilla mylk that I made yesterday, but it's still good. I didn't want to make almond vanilla two days in a row because it is rather sweet. Ani's recipe on the buckwheat cereal was to soak it overnight, then dehydrate, then use it like a regular cereal. I think it's better to soak it overnight, drain it in the a.m., rinse, and then top with mylk and eat immediately. It's less crunchy, but it does get all up in your teeth.

Lunch is a big leafy salad with almonds and cranberries. I bought some delicious looking organic pears yesterday which I wish I would have brought with me today--they looked divine! I can't wait to go home and eat one! YUM!

Side FYI - Tonight we start ballroom dance lessons with mom and Harvey at the community center. We'll be learning the foxtrot and the cha-cha! I'm excited to get out and do something and have a regular night of the week appointment!

Day 14... a new winning recipe!

YAY for Ani Phyo! She has come to save the day!

This morning I tried her breakfast recipe and I'm thrilled:
Soak raw buckwheat grouts overnight (you're supposed to put them into a food dehydrator after you soak them so that you can keep this "cereal" for a couple of months, but I wanted to eat mine this morning, so I just rinsed and it was ready to go!)

Then I made her vanilla mylk
1/4 cup soaked almonds
1/4 cup pitted dates
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract (or 1 vanilla bean)
pinch of sea salt
2 cups water

Blend. Stays for 2 days in fridge and is YUMMY over the buckwheat crispies cereal!

YAHOO!! easy breakfast!!

Brava, Ani Phyo! Brava!