Day 3. After writing yesterday's blog, I realized I'm actually feeling pretty snowed under. What's the point of doing this cleanse if I'm just stressed out and wound up the whole time? I haven't even had time to process how I'm feeling on this raw diet, as I've just allowed work stress to have its hold over me. I've been reading Dr. Gabriel Cousens' "Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine" classic book on raw food, and he talks about how it's not just acidic food, low oxygen, environmental toxins, heavy metals and lack of exercise that affects our internal terrain - acidic thoughts do too. On an energetic level, all of the above play a part on their toxic influence in our lives. So I'm making it more of a point to also manage my acidic thoughts a bit better (yup, gotta get a handle on my swearing too).

I've been trained in and practising a number of different tools in my health+wellness toolbox - so why aren't I digging around and using them?! So today I've tried to take a more mindful approach to what I'm doing, and also take some time out for ME.

So here's my food diary and beyond for Day 3:

7.20am: Pranayama I used to have a daily Pranayama practice. I used to have a daily Ashtanga yoga practice too. Now, I don't have either. And I'm feeling it. I practice whenever I can (and coming to terms with this has taken a while too). Felt much better after this morning's Pranayama.

7.50am: Hot water and juice from 1/2 lemon - OMG. I totally forgot to check on Scobydoobydoo this morning, I hope she's OK. (See Day 2's post for the Kombucha Scobydoobydoo I'm fermenting here.)

8.20am: Green Smoothie. Spinach, kale, celery, bean sprouts (home-sprouted), 1/2 avocado, 1/2 lemon juice, hemp protein powder, milled flax, pumpkin seeds, maca powder. Blended together with coconut water.

My friend, Monique, of 28 Days of Me (who recently did a month of raw), commented on my Facebook post yesterday that my smoothies are all hardcore veggie, with no fruit! Haha. This isn't always the case. On a regular day, I usually make my green smoothies using this general guide:

1 or 2 dark green leafy veg (eg. spinach, kale, broccoli. If you've got hypothyroidism, pls stay away from the raw cruciferous veggie family, only do these cooked!)
1 herb (eg. parsley, basil, coriander)
1 or 2 fruit (eg. banana or avocado, which are good for thickening up any blended mix. Or berries, mango, pomegranate. If using 2 fruit, I tend to choose at least one of them as a less sweet fruit, like berries).
Protein powder (I alternate between Nutiva's Hemp protein powder and Juvo's Raw Green Protein)
Seeds (eg. flax, chia, hemp, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, etc.)
Flavours/ textures like cacao nibs, raw cacao powder, cinnamon, raw vanilla powder, shredded coconut, coconut flakes, Coconut Manna (Um yeah. I love the cocos). Sometimes I even just put coconut oil.
Lemon juice. When all else fails, lemon juice always adds a kick to any smoothie. And if yours turns out tasting WEIRD, lemon juice will sort you out. LOL.

Since I'm viewing this raw week as a kinda-sorta cleanse, I'm trying to stay away from the sugars. I know I already cheat by having some raw almond-brittle as a treat (it's not THAT heavy on the maple syrup, but it's still sugar) - So I'm also cutting down on my intake of super sweet fruit. Or TRYING to, at least. Sugar and caffeine - these are my weaknesses. ;)

This is why I'm trying to be more mindful of increasing the low-GL, high-protein snacks with the veggie-no-fruit smoothies, raw nuts, raw seed crackers with raw nut butters. I'm sensitive to my blood-sugar balance and if I don't graze every few hours, I get hangry (hungry-angry) and totally crash - and this makes me reach for the sugar and caffeine. It's all trial and error - see what works and what doesn't!

9.45am: Breakfast. Raw Chia-Oat-Coconut Porridge.

1/3 cup oats
2 tbsp chia
1/3 cup thick coconut flakes
1 medjool date
1 cup coconut milk (see Day 1's post for type of coconut milk used here)
1/2 cup coconut water
Sprinkle of cardamom + cinnamon

Soak everything in the coconut milk and water, except the cardamom and cinnamon, overnight.
Sprinkle cardamom and cinnamon before serving.

Also: please check your teeth after eating soaked chia. Uh huh. You're likely to get black seeds stuck in every corner of your pearly whites. :)

This combo is a COCONUT KAPOW! I've been wanting to try out lots of Gabriel Cousens' raw recipes, but he uses a lot of coconut pulp. Since I'm not on an island beach with fresh cocos at the ready, I was trying to see if rehydrating the thick coconut flakes would kinda sorta work. Verdict: Not really. It's still totally yummy, but not as soft and fleshy as a big scoop of fresh coconut meat.

I left this out of the fridge, by my desk, when I got to work, so that it would "warm up" to room temperature and not be super cold when eating it.

This is what the thick coconut flakes look like when dehydrated:

Haven't felt hungry at all this whole time - I'm guessing it's the extra spoonful of chia seeds I used in my breakfast? So I decided to go to the gym.

12.30pm: ME TIME. Some running and yoga. - 3 sun salutations followed by 3.5km run, followed by half-hour of yoga (mix of core work, arm balances and backbends/ dropbacks. Totally NOT Ashtanga). ;p

I'm lucky we've got a gym at work, so any time I can steal away from my desk, I'll go for a run and a short yoga practice. It's nowhere near as long as what my ashtanga yoga practice used to be, but this is all I have time for these days. I teach a weekly lunchtime community yoga class for my workmates in this same gym when I'm in town and not having a slamming day. God knows my ad people need the yoga!

2pm: Green smoothie. The other half from this morning, while I was on a conference call.

2.45pm: Lunch. - Leftover Tamari-Sesame Kale Salad from last night. (see Day 2 post here for the recipe) - Mixed with home-made bean sprouts chickpea sprouts, and the remainder of the chipotle-sunflower seed wrap mix. This wrap mix tastes better a couple days later!

The thing with leftovers is - I always try and mix it up with other things the next day, so it doesn't seem like it's the "same old boring thing" again. Turns out now that I'm prepping every single freaking meal by hand - leftovers come in really handy for this!

Coz I've had a number of people asking for the recipe for the chipotle-sunflower seed wraps, here's a snapshot from Judita Wignall's "Raw & Simple" cookbook where it's from. Her raw recipes are all AMAAAAAZING:

8.30pm: Dinner. Spiralized zucchini "pasta" with Marinara sauce.

Recipe from Gabriel Cousens' "Rainbow Green Live-food Cuisine" book. The "pasta" is basically zucchini spiralized into a noodle shape, topped with a raw red pepper marinara sauce. The original recipe called for sun-dried tomatoes too, but I totally forgot and left them out. Still tasted good.

It's deceptively simple, I didn't think it would taste as good as it did. My guy came over for dinner, and even as a meat-eater was pleasantly surprised at the flavour this had. :)

Before serving, I topped this off with some chopped cashews and nutritional yeast.

Before bed: Soak tomorrow's breakfast!

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THOUGHTS ON DAY 3:

1. I haven't been as hungry as I thought I would be. This has surprised me. So maybe my plan of keeping with the high protein breakfasts and snacks, spaced out every few hours, is actually working?

2. Garlic. There is soooooo much garlic in so many raw recipes, I feel like I can't talk to anyone during the day. Which makes this a pretty good antimicrobial cleanse at the same time.

3. I'm happy with myself I practiced some pranayama and went to the gym/ did some yoga. Spacing these little sessions out throughout today has helped me get a slightly better handle on the work stress.

4. I am still a total scatterbrain today. They are scatterbrained moments, but not a fog like I was in yesterday. I have a feeling it's the lack of coffee that's doing this.

Overall, it doesn't feel like I've got any more or less energy. I'm feeling A-OK, much better than yesterday's MEH.

That's it for Day 3's update. :)