No more java?
It’s been a long time since I gave up my morning dose of caffeine in a cup but I do remember the experience. Vividly. It was like a week-long hangover—dull aching headache, a when-will-I-wake-up-and-smell-the-roses again feel as I viewed my surroundings through the low-lying fog in my brain. I was traveling with Elizabeth. Elizabeth gives new meaning to the word vivacious. She leaps through life, dancingLAUGHINGorchestrating the next adventure for anyone willing to accompany her on the ride. Elizabeth had enthusiastically adopted a raw food diet and was convinced that I should adopt it, too.
Why not? To me dieting was a hobby. Dieting was an art. When I wasn’t following the latest trend, I made up my own—the M&M Diet, the Diet Coke & Peanut Butter Crackers Diet, the Little Debbie Diet, and the Don’t Eat Anything ‘til Dinner & Then Eat Everything in Sight Until Midnight Diet. Pretty scary coming from a fitness instructor, yes?
I told myself I was trying to achieve optimal health, but really? I was in search of the “perfect” nutritional system that would somehow lead me to that ever-elusive “perfect” size or “perfect” shape. The raw food diet promised glowing skin, too. I jumped right in.
“No more coffee,” she warned. “You can’t adopt a raw food diet and drink coffee at the same time.” I was game. I don’t do anything half way. If Elizabeth said no coffee, I would give up coffee. It made perfect sense to me. Those were roasted beans in that hot, steamy cup of java. And I trusted Elizabeth. She was the queen of green. I jumped in with the same joie de vivre I embrace any new culinary adventure.
San Francisco
My initiation took place in a truly remarkable restaurant in San Francisco owned, by Chef Juliano. There were no ovens in this raw food restaurant. I was struck by the pristine cleanliness of my surroundings. A giant stem of prickly aloe protruded from a great big colorful array of organic fruits and vegetables, as if to say, “Bet you can’t guess where I’ll show up in the meal.” Glowing faces (further proof that raw food produced glorious skin) and enthusiastic smiles greeted me as I entered.
There is no doubt in my mind that fresh, ripe, raw organic foods contribute to beautiful glowing skin. But looking back on that evening, I’m convinced the dining experience played an even bigger part in the glow. This was San Francisco. People linger over a meal. They even bring their dogs to the restaurant. The only other city I had seen this many people dining with their dogs was Paris. I believe the glow comes with the lingering, luxurious quality of sharing a sumptuous meal for hours on end. That’s why we order so many courses, right? Surely we don’t need an appetizer, a salad, an entrée, AND dessert. We’re not that hungry. We simply don’t want the meal to end.
The menu was spectacular. We started with Samurai Pizza on a living buckwheat crust. I wrote dehydrator on my mental list of kitchen toys I couldn’t live without. Then came a rich and creamy avocado soup. I remember thinking, “Oh my. How many avocados can I be eating in this bowl of creamy, dreamy goodness? (i.e. How many grams of fat?) As if she could read my mind, Elizabeth looked at me and said, “It’s good fat. David Wolf eats avocados all day. He calls himself David Avocado Wolf.” Well, if David Wolf can eat that many avocados, surely I can, too. I had no idea who David Wolf was at the time but he was undoubtedly a raw food expert so I trusted my latest food guru and enjoyed every morsel of that meal. This was 1997, long before the raw food lifestyle made its debut and became the sexy new diet.
Raw Food Rapture
Pretty soon people at adjoining tables were blissfully falling into raw food rapture. It looks something like this: eyes close, head tilts back, rapturous look ensues. Then you hear “Oh my God!” Or, “You’ve GOT to taste this salad, it’s the most amazing salad I’ve ever eaten.” And it was. The food in this restaurant was exquisite. People were getting up from their tables, sharing their dishes with total strangers. My mother would have been mortified. You ate off a stranger’s plate? In San Francisco? Have you lost your mind? She would have been even more aghast had she seen the hair on this chef, pony tail popping out of a tightly wrapped bun on the top of his freshly shaven head.
Was it the raw food that had me captivated? Yes. And no. I was caught up in culinary ecstasy. The food was that good. I love to see people combine textures and flavors in new and interesting ways. This was new. And it was most definitely interesting. I bought Juliano’s cookbook, I ordered a dehydrator and I jumped into the raw food lifestyle with both feet and an enthusiastic palate. I prepared raw food treats for my beloved. He wasn’t sold. I prepared raw food treats for my friends. They appeased me. “Here she goes again,” they mused. “At least she’s off the macrobiotic kick. Anything is better than the seaweed stew she prepared for our last gathering.”
That was my first raw food journey. It didn’t last. The minute the temperature dropped below 50 degrees, I was craving Grandma’s soup. Enzyme killer? Maybe. Dead food? Absolutely not. At the very deepest level, I knew the love I put into the preparation of that soup and the memories it evoked far outweighed the nutrient value lost in the simmering. Somehow, blending Rejuvelac (fermented wheat berry water) with raw vegetables in my shiny new Vitamix and calling it soup just didn’t satisfy my foodie sensibility. I kept the cookbook. I enjoyed many of the recipes, even the Sun Stew with twenty-six ingredients (NOT counting the Rejuvelac). But pretty soon, I returned to a more flexitarian approach to nourishment. I include an abundance of raw and living food in my diet and when the cold winds blow, I simmer a great big pot of Grandma’s soup.
How about you? Do you listen to your body? Are you choosing foods that nourish you at every level? Are you honoring your urges or “curbing your cravings”? Leave a comment and tell me about YOUR journey.
12 thoughts on “Raw Food Rapture, No More Java”
Sue,
What a timely post for me to read as I’ve been considering raw for awhile but have been too intimidated to try it. I love your flexitarian approach and can see myself going that route!
Go girl! Come visit me in California @ I will take you to many new raw vegan restrauants in the Bay area.
You are looking younger each time we meet. Keep up the good work , helping others.
I just may have to take you up on that offer next time I’m in California!
Thank you so much for sharing your adventure with us! I am also flirting with the idea of a raw diet, like you I have tried every diet and have also made up my own. I had a great chuckle with the Diet Coke and Peanut Butter Diet, that I must try. Kidding aside. Food has always been a topic dear to my heart and palate. I guess my journey has been simply getting clean and balancing good habits with the indulges (from time to time). I love to host meals in my home, dine out and food always provokes a celebration. I need to also include the idea of food as nourishment. I think like yourself, it’s all about balance. Thank you as always for sharing your wisdom, I learn so much for you.
Hi Nasrine, I have found the best approach to a raw foods diet is simply adding an abundance of fresh, raw, ripe organic fruits and vegetables to your existing diet. Then, listen to your body and see what else it desires. In my observation, the people who have the least success with this nutritional system are the ones who adhere to it even when their body is calling for something else. Sometimes a nutritional system becomes an identity or a statement: “I’m raw.” “I’m vegan.” “I’m a carnivore.” Why not just embrace good clean, wholesome food and LOVE what you eat? That way you never have to worry about “falling off the wagon.” Ouch!
Hi Sue Ann,
I’m totally in love with your approach to food. I’m in awe how you are challenging women to go back to listening to their bodies. I’ve personally found this to be the truth for myself. I can’t tell you how many different nutritional approaches I have read about and tried to follow – oftentimes to the point of making me feel worse. So, when I read your posts, I know how much you’re doing for others to connect with their bodies’ wisdom and to follow those clues instead of strict dogma!
My hat’s off to you!
Hugs,
Marion
Sue Ann, you brought so many aspects of “diet” into this post… perfection (or the illusion of it), what works for “somebody else,” the initial rush of “culinary ecstasy” (LOVE that term, by the way…!), and finally, the sense that something’s missing… basically, you brought it full circle.
By examining the motivations behind “diet” (without disregarding the positives, such as foodie sharing and glowing skin), or disrespecting anyone else’s choices, you put the decision where it belonged: with each one of us. Food is personal. Bodies are unique. Do what works best for you … or me. Your writing is sensational, in every sense of the word.
Hi Sue Ann:
I love your ap
proach to food; it’s been my philosophy, too. For the most part I try and listen to my body, though I still can’t seem to kick the morning coffee habit: it’s something I look forward to, but that in itself is listening. Why deprive myself? And some days I have tea and other days a smoothie…so there’s no tried and true rule. I listen and don’t fall into the trap of all or nothing.
You’re so right: food is personal and it’s up to the individual to decide. How refreshing to not be “force fed” diet information but instead listen to what we need to nourish ourselves.
Sue Ann, you know I love you! This is a great post–thoughtful, respectful, and reflective. So many -ists and -isms (you know how I rail against them), but I do love raw foods. And I’m a devoted herbivore (vegan for shorthand…), and I make the meanest, most nourishing, sexiest soup you could ever dig your spoon into! So, I fit into many boxes, but not one box, you know?
Real food, recognizable, prepared with love. Yeah, and a heap o’ dark chocolate on the side–that’s my diet! xo
Thank you, Shanna. My sentiments exactly. I wish I had coined the word flexitarian. That seems to be the most spacious word I’ve heard to describe what it means to embrace beautiful healthy food without making it a religion. Perhaps I can call myself a vibrantarian. I eat fresh, whole vibrant foods that my grandmother would have prepared with ease, and probably with garlic. LOL
Sue Ann,
After years of living off the commando diet (eating whatever was close, fast, and filling), I started factoring in more healthful foods whenever I can. Raw is something I have never tried. I have eaten at raw restaurants but only as a fascination. What I missed was the sensory smorgasbord in consuming well prepared ethnic food. I can’t resist the smell of hickory smoked barbecue, my homemade spaghetti sauce, or apple pie just out of the oven. I think our relationship with food requires use of all of our senses to be truly nourishing. I don’t debate that eating a raw diet is healthy but it does nothing for my other senses. Perhaps I not ready for such a profound shift all at once but I am going to try introducing more raw foods into meals at your suggestion. Thanks for posting such a thought provoking article on your approach to food. It may take me a lifetime to evolve my eating habits out of the Southern diet I was raised on but I am working towards it.
I suspect your southern diet nourishes you at a very deep level, Matthew. After a week with my dad, eating all kinds of foods I don’t normally consume, I feel pretty confident that the memories evoked by those meals were far more nutrient-dense than the “better choices” I might have made. My rhythm will return, as will the foods I’ve come to love—many of them raw, many of them not.