Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine Phase I diet UPDATE

Ok, so today is officially the end of week one of my experiment. I'm going to give you a bit of a run down on my energy levels, what my food intake looked like, any problems I may have had, my levels of exercise, and what kind of supplementation I was taking.

Let me first begin by telling you what kind of "constitutional type" I am. I have read a ton of information about different physiological / mind-body types that exist, and where I fit in to all of that. Cousen's book "Conscious Eating" provides some very in-depth material to gain a better understanding of these types. I recommend you check it out. Here's what my "types" are:

Vata-Kapha dosha: (predominantly Vata, somewhat Kapha) For more info on the Ayurvedic doshas check out: www.whatsyourdosha.com
This also means that there are a number of different considerations I should take when eating, such as frequency, types of foods, temperature of the foods, form of the foods etc.

Fast Oxidizer: Means my metabolism burns through things much easier, and I should therefore eat a diet that has a higher ratio of proteins to carbs.

Ironically, I've found that I navigate naturally to these kinds of foods already. I rarely feel totally satiated by just a salad, I usually need something like nuts and seeds or a pâté to go along with it before I feel full. Also, I've always had issues with "gastro-intestinal disruption" (aka, I fart like a mother-f***er if I eat a ton of beans) when I eat non-sprouted nuts, seeds, legumes. So raw food was a great move for me because I no longer had that problem. (wow can't believe I'm putting this on the internet...)

As I mentioned before, I have quite the love affair with sugar. Fruit and I get along famously, and I might as well be hooked up to an IV of honey 24/7 because I eat it so much. However, I have noticed that while my energy is better on raw foods than cooked foods, (when I eat cooked I get straight up lethargic) it still has some pretty significant ups and downs. This is why I was interested to see how I would do without all of that on Cousen's Phase I diet.

So far, I have noticed some great changes in my energy level. Especially the first 4-5 days. I felt alert, stable, sharp, and I stayed that way until nighttime. These last two days however, I've begun to feel a bit more tired. I wonder however, if that's due to the fact that I've been staying out later at night with friends. Also, I haven't totally adjusted to California time, and I think part of me is still back in Connecticut. I wake up at about 7:30AM every day (a miracle for me) and usually feel energized. These last two days however I've felt relatively tired. That could just be because I was out until midnight. (not that crazy I know...) During the day though, I haven't felt as pumped up as I did the first 5 days... Maybe I'm detoxing? Maybe I wore myself out when I went paddleboarding in the morning? Who knows.

OK. Here's the fun stuff. This is an example of what I would typically eat in a day:

Morning: Ball jar full of Green Juice: cucumber, celery, ginger, lemon, dino-kale
                Fresh Almond Milk: almonds, purified water, stevia extract
                Tree of Life Granola: recipe is in the book...
Noon:      Avocado Kale Salad: Recipe is in the book, but you can imagine what's in this...
                Fennel Soup: It was my first stab at raw soup... it was weirdly filling (recipe is in the book)
                Magic Wands: Literally the strangest snack I've ever had... It's this nori roll with this spicy filling... it's dehydrated... super odd, but weirdly tasty as well
Night:      Almond Hummus: This recipe blew my mind, I had no idea raw hummus could taste so simliar to Garbanzo hummus... (which, as previously noted, makes me very... "windy")
                Italian Crackers: Run of the mill flaxy type cracker. Not bad.

As time has gone on though, I've become way less interested in eating that much. My intake has decreased, and maybe I should amp it up again to see if my energy levels change or not. For now though, somebody is crashing in our living room, and I can't use the dehydrator b/c it's too loud. :-(

ALSO... I have had some problems so far. I have been prone to anemia / low blood pressure for a while now, and when I was a very unhealthy vegetarian, I actually passed out in the shower once and bumped my head reaaaaaally good. My parents were terrified and the doctor said I needed to up my iron intake. (surprise surprise) SO... all along this journey I've been careful to take iron supplements. I take vitamin code "iron" and I've even been doubling the dosage because I have been feeling the symptoms of low blood pressure so much! I get really light headed and often feel like I'm going to pass out. It's not good! I'm kind of nervous about it, and I asked one of my fellow raw foodie gurus about it. She said that if I'm eating a high amount of dark leafy greens, then I should be fine in terms of iron. She recommended I up my intake of fresh pressed oils. Not quite sure how to do that though b/c I no longer have my morning smoothies. (you can't have bananas or fruit on Phase I which makes smoothie creation impossible.)

What's odd though, is that I've been exercising quite a bit as I've recently taken up paddleboarding. I feel totally fine on the water, and didn't even feel weak in the slightest when I was out there. So I'm perplexed as to why my symptoms only flare up when I'm sedentary for a while... It's a bit nerve wracking.

Anyhow... my next phase that I start tomorrow is Phase 1.5. It allows for some low-glycemic fruits to be introduced as well as my FAVORITE THING IN THE WORLD: COCONUT WATER!!! I expect this addition will make it much easier for me to continue. I felt kind of lame about not following Phase I for the whole 3 months, and then I re-read the chapter on the different phases. Cousens says that Phase I is intended for people who are "highly mycotoxic" and have a plethora of different diseases. Phase 1.5 is for those who are "moderately mycotoxic", and I believe I definitely fit that description. So... while I'm technically not following his recommendations to a T, I feel as though it suffices. It's great reference for the future if I ever do suffer from some serious health complications. At least I'll know what to expect if I try to heal myself.

Wow... this is a pretty big post haha... If you read this thanks for hanging in there!

Best,

Cliff