CatherineR

Day 9: The days are running together here and I'm going to try to remember all that I ate, but I've still been raw. :)

Breakfast: Fruit bowl of papaya, pineapple, dragon fruit, and strawberries. I had a mango-strawberry juice, a wheatgrass shot, and a square of raw vegan chocolate (which they sell in so many places!)

Lunch: Basic green salad and orange juice.

Post-lunch: Orange carrot ginger juice

Dinner: I was pretty hungry, so I ordered a spinach mushroom "quiche" which fell a little flat. But I admire their efforts! I also got a caesar salad which was quite nice: capers, strawberry, and rawmesian with a good solid ranch-type dressing.

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Day 10: 

Breakfast: Cacao smoothie

Post-breakfast: Trail mix with nuts and raisins

Lunch: Orange juice with a greens and avocado salad

Post-lunch: Bowl of mangosteens and a beet juice mix

Dinner: Raw nachos, green juice, and a banana toffee pie

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So yeah, Bali continues being quite easy for raw food. Occasionally I've gotten a craving for warm food or something a little more savory like a tofu curry. But otherwise it's been fine! 

Day 8

Delicious food day! Bali is amazing.

Breakfast: Cacao smoothie, then went to my favorite restaurant, Clear Cafe. Unfortunately they didn't have lunch options, so I went for a raw granola with coconut milk and fruit (papaya, strawberry, banana). Also had a strawberry milkshake.

Post-breakfast: Saw a raw chocolate place, so I went in and grabbed raisin cashew chocolate bar. It was fantastic. 

Lunch: Had the nasi goreng which I didn't eat from last night, which was fermented seitan and spring rolls with an Asian vinaigrette. It was good--the fermented tempeh had a cheesy taste to it.

Post-lunch: had a delicious mangosteen and cacao smoothie.

Dinner: Made a giant salad of cucumber, cherry tomato, avocado, and topped it with pistachio, raisin, and basil. For the dressing, I marinated the veggies in olive oil, lemon juice and pink salt. Then I added a dollop of the tahini dressing. It was a bit of a random salad but still quite good.

Overall I'm feeling good, just a little jetlagged. Soon will be some rafting and touring around before moving to a new place on the island. It's been a great trip, and going raw is super easy here.

Thanks, Claire! Fruit for breakfast is always great. Super light, easy to make! I hope you live in a relatively fruit-friendly place. Most places are, but I'd say somewhere like Ecuador is a little easier than Finland. Airport food IS getting better, too! It's always great finding straight up nuts, juice bars, and even decent salads. LAX international has a fantastic vegan restaurant, for example. But yeah, I remember the days of soggy frozen egg meals and crappy potato chips everywhere. What do you normally enjoy in a day?

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Day 6: airport hell

I stuck with being raw, but had no time to eat. I thought a three-hour layover in Malaysia would afford time to decompress and get a meal, but nope: had to run through immigration twice, recheck baggage and get a new ticket, go through two security checkpoints... it was AWFUL. And yet, I had 10 minutes to grab fresh pineapple and orange juice in the food court. It wasn't ideal since I was drinking while jogging, but hey, I made the flight (barely, they closed the gate by the time I got there!) and all was good.

Food intake was: half an avocado, pomegranate seeds, a few date medallions, and juice. That was it. It was the saddest raw day ever. But, we stopped at the grocery store at almost midnight on the way into the place we're staying, and stocked up on amazing fruits. 

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Day 7: raw paradise

Bali is easily the most raw vegan-friendly vacation spot I've visited, except maybe somewhere like Southern California where there's a raw spot seemingly on every corner and Whole Foods/Paycheck makes going raw stupidly easy.

Morning: Cacao smoothie (packing the personal blender was a good move).

Lunch: I ordered raw vegan pizza delivery, haha. It was great: flax/nut crust with basil pesto, shredded kale and asparagus, and cashew cheese. Also had fresh orange juice.

Snack: Bowl of mangosteens which were fresh and fantastic. Another cacao smoothie with cashews and dates for milk and sweetness.

Dinner: Ordered delivery of raw Arabic salad with garlic tahini dressing, and raw nasi goreng. Haven't had it yet (still waiting on the order), but I'm sure it'll be good.

Admittedly, now's the time where it's slightly hard doing raw because the vegan spring rolls with peanut sauce would be my first choice... but I'm still super happy and grateful to be in a place with amazing options. 

Plus, raw's been serving me well so I'll stick by it. Reduced jet lag, my face looks fresh and leaner, and just feel all around fine. One week in, all is good!

Day 5: still trucking along, and pretty easily at that. 

Breakfast: fruit salad of pomegranate seeds, mango, and kiwi. Also had the usual cacao smoothie.

Snack: I packed these snacks here which are mashed dates and mixed nuts (pistachio/almonds) shaped into 1/2" thick medallions the size of half dollars. I had about 5 of those until lunch and they kept me nice and satiated.

Lunch: Salad of cucumber, carrot, red pepper and tomato with creamy lemon thyme dressing (which if I'm honest, was really just a raw ranch dip with fresh thyme). I ran out of kale and I'll be traveling, so there was no point in restocking the pantry. Hence, the lack of variation.

Dinner: Similar salad except I made a ranch base and added plenty of black pepper. I also followed it up with a fantastic almond date smoothie that I made with coconut milk.  

So far, no cravings for cooked. It's been very easy, but this is also because I can eat the same foods for a long time and be fine. I always try to use the raw honeymoon period to learn new dishes that will help keep this more on autopilot, because the more dishes I learn that are easy and predictable, the more I can rotate things in and out with ease. I do see that I have more fats than fruit in my diet but as of right now I'm okay with that. I feel better after eating a veggie salad with a nut-heavy dressing than I do a bowl of fruit. 

I notice that I get a resounding sense of gratitude for food these days. I'll take a bite of a particularly good dish and feel so blessed. It's easy to say one "only" eats fruits and vegetables, but we live in a time of such an embarrassment of riches. The fruit we enjoy today is so very different than the tasteless fruit cultivars from centuries ago. We have salt for pennies, when it used to cost paychecks. The variety is truly staggering. I need to probably eat a wider variety of foods myself, but I'll get there. A hurdle I see will be eating a wide enough variety of fruits and veggies: on a vegan diet I eat so many types of cooked vegetables, and that will be harder in this case--it's hard eating okra, eggplant, gourd, certain greens, chow chow, and yam as raw. But, there are many advantageous things I'm forgoing: cooked/heated oil and fatty foods, white rice, overly spicy foods, etc. I think one reason why I ultimately went off raw last time was because I said, "it's not like my old diet was so bad." And while this is true, I need to remember all of the reasons I'm going raw.

Which, oh, noticeable benefit already: my face. It just looks so much better. Not puffy at all, and just... brighter. Neat benefit for only being 5 days in. I haven't weighed myself and nor do I feel a need to, but I might do so when I get back from my trip.

Speaking of, I'm in a plane or running around airports from early morning to late in the evening tomorrow, blah. I often comfort eat in this particular situation as a way of passing the time or trying to make the trip more enjoyable, but that's not exactly the case for tomorrow. It's not a big deal and I'll manage fine. I've packed enough calories' worth of dates and nuts that even if I only ate those things I'd be just fine. And part of me still feels like cribbing about "not being able to eat certain foods" is such a ridiculous first world problem that I can't take it seriously. It's an insane blessing that one's biggest issue is only eating some types of foods but not others, all while going to some beautiful place. So, again: no real complaints.

Living Light is pretty gourmet and high end. I'd absolutely pursue that option with enough of the basics under my belt especially if you're in the area.

I actually second ClaireT's sentiment of suggesting Laura-Jane's stuff because her recipes are so incredibly easy but delicious. I got her cookbook to keep me busy for my first 30 days raw and I think I'll be jumping over to her classes at the end of the first month.

Whichever you choose, good luck.