44th Day Eating Raw!

Today is my 44th day eating 100% raw food. This is the longest I have gone eating only raw foods. As you can imagine, I am feeling great. It is starting to become second nature, and I don't have to think about it as much as I once did. It is not as hard to find things to eat in a pinch, like it used to be. For some reason, before when I needed a "snack," I felt like it needed to be something like crackers, chips, or something "snacky" like that. However now, eating fresh fruit as a snack is much easier and more satisfying than it once was. Instead of turning to fruit as a last resort for a snack food, I now look in the fruit bowl first, and am disappointed if I have to choose something else.

I have also been doing well with my running schedule. This week marks the official start of my 12 week training towards the half marathon I will be running in June. I will be running 3-4 days a week to start, and also cross training with ballet classes, doing strength training and stretching. I had a really good run today: 4.5 miles in about 50 minutes. A fast pace is not my goal at this point. Running the longest I can without having to walk is my main goal.

On my run today, I was thinking about people's skepticism when it comes to raw food athletes. I have heard people say things like "I could never eat only raw because I am too active. I could never derive enough energy from that kind of food to build strength, endurance, etc." As I was running, and feeling amazing (full of energy, almost like what I was doing was easy) my question was not "How can I do this eating only raw food" but instead I thought to myself, "How can people do this while eating all that processed, cooked, and nutritionally-void food?!"

I have been researching various training programs for running half marathons, as well as running while eating only raw foods. I have found that there are many raw food athletes that are not only surviving, but thriving eating only raw foods. It is such a misconception that eating a raw vegan diet is nutritionally inadequate, especially for an athlete. I do agree that there are many vegans who's diets are poor, and are not getting a well rounded diet that includes all of the necessary components to flourish. But when done properly, and by including lots of leafy greens, fresh fruits and vegetables, sprouted grains, and sparing amounts of nuts and seeds, a raw food diet is arguably the optimum diet for humans.

That being said, I am still not entirely sure about my stance on raw food, and whether 100% raw is the way for me to eat for the rest of my life. However, I am convinced that a high raw diet of at least 80% raw vegan food is definitely the best way to eat. The way that I feel now, after 44 days of 100% raw food, is evidence enough that my body loves this. My skin and eyes are clear, I need less sleep, I have so much more energy, my mood has greatly improved, I am more optimistic, I never feel that overfull feeling like when eating cooked foods, I have more positive relationships with those around me, and the list literally goes on and on. I truly feel better than I have in years. And the reason why is so simple. I'm not taking expensive supplements with extraordinary health claims or anything as misleading as that. Raw food is the simplest, most natural way to heal your body and achieve the vitality your body has the potential to obtain.

Check our www.runningraw.com if you are interested in the subject. I'll post more links to other sites another time.

Thanks for reading. I'll update again soon. :)

xoxo~Stephanie

Running Raw..........

My 100 day raw food challenge is going well. I'm on day 32 of being 100% raw. Overall I'm feeling really good. Today I'm pretty tired, so I won't be giving the full update. I just wanted to check in and say that I'm still here...... and I'm still raw. :)

I started running. I needed some kind of cardio activity, and running seemed appealing to me. I've never been a runner before in my life, but I am now. I've decided I am going to run a half marathon in June. This decision came after wanting to run the Portland marathon on October, but it seemed too far away. I wanted a closer event that would get me training now. The June half marathon is the perfect amount of time away for me to start training for it now. After the half marathon, I will have a month or so break before I start training for the Portland marathon. Never in my life did I think that I would ever or could ever run a marathon or half marathon, or even want to. That's one reason why I want to do it now. I am very committed to this, and I'm excited about it!

I am a beginning runner. I started out not being able to run more than about 5 minutes without stopping. But I keep increasing my time. My pace is slow, but I'm okay with that. At least I'm running. Last week the longest I ran was 34 minutes and about 3 miles. Today I decided that I again would set a goal of 3 miles. I met and surpassed my goal. I ran for 50 minutes without stopping, which ended up being 4.3 miles. That is a personal best. I also ran up this super steep hill that I usually have to walk up. I felt really great after the run, and I'm so glad I went. I was feeling pretty sluggish before hand, so I wasn't sure how I was going to perform.

By the way, if all goes well, I'd like to train and run this half marathon 100% raw. :-)

xoxo~Stephanie